FAQ

Nest Quest surveys can happen anywhere you can set up a plot, and have permission to access the land. You may travel as far from home as you like to do a survey or just do it in your backyard! There are no limits. 

Bumble bees are flexible with their nesting habitat preferences, so all types of habitat are interesting to search. 

We recommend conducting surveys anytime in June, July, and August. Since bumble bee colonies start each spring from a single queen, colonies start out small and get larger through the season. Even if you see lots of queen activity in the spring, our chances of finding nests in plots will be lower when colonies are small. The best times to find bumble bee nests are when bumble bee nests are most active and colony populations have grown. Peak bumble bee season is generally in July and August, when colonies are at their most populous. The more bees flying in and out of colonies, the better your chance of detecting them.  Depending on where you live,  peak bumble bee season may vary. In northern Minnesota bumble bee season is generally shorter than in southern Minnesota. 

There is no limit to the number of surveys you can do. Conduct as many surveys as you would like. 

No. However, you may setup plots close by to previous plots if you are interested in thoroughly scouring an area for nests. 

Yes, you should still report the nest to  Bumble Bee Watch. You may find a bumble bee nest while you are walking to or from your survey. You may also find a bumble bee nest incidentally while going about your daily life. Even though these would not be part of an official survey, you should still follow the protocols for what to do if you find a nest (recording location, collecting data, alerting staff, etc.). These data are important for the study of bumble bee nesting habitat, but will be not be used for assessment of the efficiency of survey techniques. 

No. If you already know the location of a nest, intentionally placing a survey plot around it would bias the data. If you know the location of a nest without detecting it during a survey, simply record it using a nest reporting data sheet, and submit that data to Bumble Bee Watch. 

Sometimes, habitats do not fit neatly into the categories we try to assign them to. For example, a forest in the middle of an urban park may feel like it can be categorized as forest as well as urban habitat. When determining the habitat of your plot, follow your intuition and go with what feels best to you. What you feel is likely correct. 

You may also explain how the habitat looks by recording some notes in the "Describe your survey plot in your own words:" field and/or take a photo of your plot to submit when entering your data.

One of the easiest ways to find and record latitude and longitude is to use your smart phone and drop a pin your maps app. 

How to find your coordinates using your smartphone: 

1. Open your maps app on your phone

2. Find your current location on the map. Most apps have an “arrow” button to automatically orient you to your current location.

3. Tap and hold on your location to place a pin. This pin will provide you with location information, including latitude and longitude. 

Your app may give you the latitude and longitude with a N and W. This is the correct value, but is less widely used in ecological data formats. This can simply be translated to:

44.98964° N, 93.18131° W → 44.98964, -93.18131

Even if you do not recognize the coordinate format your pin creates, it is best to include it anyway when entering your data as it can be converted later. Any location data is good data.

It is not always clear when a bumble bee nest is present. You may see insect activity that looks very similar to that of an active bumble bee nest. 

Ground nesting hornets and wasps exhibit similar behavior to bumble bee nests. However, these nests are often larger and more active than an average bumble bee nest. If you look closely (and from a safe distance), you may be able to identify that the insects flying from the nest are not bumble bees. 

In the fall, you may see male bumble bees flittering about while looking for a mate. This can easily be mistaken for nesting behavior, since they aren't always foraging. Some species like B. griseocollis, B. rufocinctus, and B. auricomus often use perches and may even form aggregations. 

You may observe bumble bees flying close to the ground for low flowers. Some plants, like partridge pea or red clover, grow very low to the ground and are difficult to see when they are amongst lots of other vegetation. 

Sometimes, bumble bees are just weird. You may see them crawling on the ground or on other vegetation even when there is no nest nearby. 

Generally, after you find a nest it will be left alone to continue through it's life cycle naturally. However, if you find a rare species nest, researches may be interested in visiting the nest to observe it in more detail. 

You may also opt to monitor the nest throughout the season to measure it's activity and if the bees are returning with pollen to the nest. 

Yes. Anyone can adopt as many grid cells as they'd like.  We use the grids to gauge the geographic extent of survey adoption across the state as we would like to eventually have surveys conducted in each grid cell.

Yes. There is no limit to the amount of people who can adopt a single grid cell. 

You must be at least 18 years old to adopt a grid cell, but your kids or a group of kids you supervise may participate, as long as they are old enough to concentrate on an area for 20 minutes.