In response to the posting on Bumblebees as pollinators of greenhouse
tomatoes, it is worth noting that the success which has been acheived
in Europe with Bombus terrestris is being paralleled in Canada with
North American native species of Bombus. Work has been completed in
Ontario and in British Columbia to demonstrate the efficacy of the
use of Bombus in greenhouses. A note was published last year in one
of the trade magazines on the subject (I do not have a copy, nor the
name of the magazine at hand) and a paper in now in press in the
Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Ontario on the results
of another set of experiments. Acta Horticulturae (most recent issue)
has some papers on the subject, but from Europe and New Zealand. In
Canada, we have produced the first issue of a newsletter "Bumblebee-
quest" devoted to the use of bumblebees in agriculture/horticulture.
I will be happy to arrange for interested people to receive more
detailed information on any of the above. Please message me directly.
 
In Europe and New Zealand there is great enthusiasm, and a burgeoning
new industry associated with the import/export of bumblebee colonies
for greenhouse pollination applications. The claims that the companies
involved (Koppert, Brinkman, Bunting and perhaps others) that the bees
are native is correct in that even the New Zealand bees are the result
of early introduction of bumblebees from Britain to NZ for red clover
pollination. Thus, at the species level, nativeness is assured. However,
some assertions that the genetic stock is native to the region where the
bees are used seem unreliable and some bumblebee scientists in Europe
have expressed their concern about the shipping of southern European
B. terrestris to northern Europe. In Canada, the authorities will not allow
the import of European bumblbees.
 
For the use of bumblebees to become throroughly entrenched into agriculture
the matter of continual rearing of reliable stock has yet to be fully
mastered. I understand that even in Europe and New Zealand, the cultured
stocks of B. terrestris must be infused from time to time with new genes
from the wild populations. In Canada, progress seems not to be quite as
far along. Certainly, providing bumblebees for pollination  of the late
winter flowering batch of tomato plants presents a problem which is well
recognized by the experts here.