spring ephemerals. Spring blooming shrubs such as ninebark and pussy willow and fall blooming plants such as asters and goldenrods are plentiful sources of food for bumble bees.

For more information, visit: www.fws.gov/midwest/endangered/insects/rpbb/plants.html

Create and Maintain Healthy Bumble Bee HabitatLeave some areas undisturbed for nesting and overwintering. Bumble bees nest under bunch grasses, piled stones, brush and compost piles, in abandoned rodent holes, or other overgrown areas. Queens need a safe place to overwinter or hibernate. They are likely to overwinter in areas with bare soil and leaf litter (including evergreen needle duff).

Let flowering plants grow in your lawn. Pollinator-friendly lawns and yards contain small flowering plants such as dandelions, clover, self-heal, blanket flower, and creeping thyme.

Manage insect pests and invasive plants without harming bumble bees. To help conserve rusty patched bumble bees, consider the following methods to manage insect and plant pests in your lawn and garden.

Follow the principles of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) or hire professionals who use IPM. IPM addresses the source of pest problems.

• Healthy plants are more resistant to pests and disease. Keep your plants healthy by growing them in the best location. Consider sunlight, wind and soil and give them the right amount of nutrients and water. For lawns, mowing higher will allow the grass to develop deeper, more pest resilient roots.

• Improve the health of your lawn by aerating and tilling. If you top dress lawns and gardens, choose naturally-based, weed and insect free mulch.

Yards, gardens and parks with rusty patched bumble bees will also have other native bees, butterflies and birds.

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

Rusty Patched Bumble Bees in Cities and SuburbsYou can make a difference by maintaining bee-healthy yards and gardens.

The rusty patched bumble bee was once common in eastern North America, but has been lost from an estimated 87% of its historic range. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the rusty patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis) as an endangered species in January 2017.

This bee is social, nests underground, forages on flowers, and pollinates wildflowers and crops. Both the female workers and males have a rust-colored patch on the middle of their second abdominal segment; the queen does not.

What You Can Do: how you manage your yard and garden makes a difference.

Provide Ample Bumble Bee Food Plant a sequence of flowers that bloom from early spring through fall. Rusty patched bumble bees collect nectar and pollen from a variety of flowering plants that include native plants, garden plants, shrubs, trees, weeds and crops. In your yard, plant native species such as bee balm, milkweeds, hyssop, wild lupine, native prairie plants and

A rusty patched bumble bee, with the distinctive rust colored patch.Photo by Tamara Smith; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Bee balm is an easy to grow native flower that attracts many pollinators.Photo by Jill Utrup; USFWS

• Know your site and its ecology: for example, soil and habitat type.

• Provide your plants nutrients, create beneficial insect habitat, rotate your garden crops, and water the garden based on need rather than on a schedule.

• Plants can tolerate some pests. Confirm that the pest is causing unacceptable long-term harm to your plants. If your plants have a serious pest problem that may cause long-term damage consider mechanical removal. Using gloves, remove the infected portions of the plants or the entire plant.

• Encourage native predators in your garden and yard habitat. For example, praying mantis will feed on many pest insects.

If you decide you need to use a pesticide for insect pest and invasive weed control:

• Always read the label. The label has information for safe usage, application rate and methods, and hazards to bees. The label is the law and must be followed.

• Minimize the use of pesticides in and around bumble bee nesting and forage sites. Insecticides and fungicides can directly harm bees if they are exposed. Herbicides can harm the plants bees need for food.

• Avoid the use of pesticides, especially insecticides, when and where there are flowers blooming.

• Consider products such as fatty acids or insecticidal soaps for soft bodied insect-pests such as aphids, mealy bugs, mites, and for powdery mildew. You can also make your own diluted dish-detergent or a vegetable oil/water/dish-detergent solution for use on these pests. Pheromone bait traps and attractants may be used for some pests such as Japanese beetles.

• Consult with your local extension agents and lawn-care professionals.

When planting your garden or yard with store-bought plants, choose plants that have not been treated with pesticides. Ask if the plants you are purchasing are pesticide-free.

Where you can find more information:

• U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service Pollinator Guidance: www.fws.gov/pollinators

• U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service IPM Guidance: www.fws.gov/pollinators/pdfs/Reducing_Risks_to_Pollinators_from_Pest_Control_factsheet.pdf

• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: Attracting Pollinators to Your Garden www.fws.gov/pollinators/pdfs/PollinatorBookletFinalrevWeb.pdf

• Xerces Society Pollinator Conservation: xerces.org/pollinators-great-lakes-region

• Local community organizations, such as Master Gardener Programs and Garden Clubs.

• Extension offices, Universities, and the Regional IPM Centers www.ipmcenters.org

Urban gardens are beautiful while providing great habitat for bumble bees and other pollinators. Native plants tend to need less care and be more resistant to pests. This garden grows anise hyssop, yellow coneflower, rose milkweed and black eyed susan.Photo Jill Utrup; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service June 2018