A 3D Printed Pollen Trap for Bumble Bee (Bombus) Hive Entrances

To verify the plant sources from which bumble bees forage for pollen, individuals must be collected to remove their corbicular pollen loads for analysis. This has traditionally been done by netting foragers at nest entrances or on flowers, chilling the bees on ice, and then removing the pollen loads from the corbiculae with forceps or a brush. This method is time and labor intensive, may alter normal foraging behavior, and can result in stinging incidents for the worker performing the task. Pollen traps, such as those used on honey bee hives, collect pollen by dislodging corbicular pollen loads from the legs of workers as they pass through screens at the nest entrance. Traps can remove a large quantity of pollen from returning forager bees with minimal labor, yet to date no such trap is available for use with bumble bee colonies. Workers within a bumble bee colony can vary in size making size selection of entrances difficult to adapt this mechanism to commercially reared bumble bee hives. Using 3D printing design programs, we created a pollen trap that successfully removes the corbicular pollen loads from the legs of returning bumble bee foragers. This method significantly reduces the amount of time required by researchers to collect pollen from bumble bee foragers returning to the colony. We present the design, results of pollen removal efficiency tests, and suggest areas of modifications for investigators to adapt traps to a variety of bumble bee species or nest box designs.