Bumble Bees, Alternative Pollinators of Hormones for Blossoming Flowers in Syria

The Experience of using bumble bees as pollinators in alternative of hormones is widely spread in Syria recently.

Director of Homs Agricultural Department Zafer al-Sabbagh said that the technology of bumble bees is first used in Homs this year on pollination of tomato.

It is a pioneer experience due to the bumble bees' high capability of bearing the unnatural circumstances, where the bees can preserve their activities on 5 centigrade.

He added that using the bees leads to increase the average of blossoming to 100 percent instead of 70 percent for using the hormones, taking into consideration the standing dispute on preventing the usage of hormones in the greenhouses.

The bumble bee technology is used in 52 countries across the world. He pointed out that the aim of adopting the bumble bees in pollination of tomato is to get rid of the chemical ways, like using hormones, which have dangerous effect on human beings through eating their remains in the fruits and vegetables or direct exposure to the hormones.

Head of Agrarian Reform in Homs Agricultural Directorate Mahmoud Ghassah said that a hive of bumble bees can blossom 100 to 300 square meters of vegetables for 8-12 weeks and produce medium, similar-size and full of juice fruits.

Ghassah called on the Agriculture Ministry to offer the necessary requirements and facilities to the farmers and support the usage of this technology through exporting the bumble bees' hives due to its expensive prices.

He pointed out that the bumble bees are distinguished by long mouth fractions, covered with intensified hair which gives them additional efficiency as pollinators.

He called for benefiting from the scientific, international and local experiences to produce further bumble bees hives to meet the needs of the local farmers.

The bumble bees experience was used for the first time in Homs on Tomato crop on an area of 340 square meters in al-Masidda village in Tal Kalakh region in the framework of Farmers' Field School which aims at rationalizing the use of fertilizers to produce safe and free of fertilizers crops.

Ibrahim Issa, the farmer who implemented the experience in his greenhouse, said that the experience succeeded by all standards, and in regard to the test, the color, and the period of blossoming.

The bumble bees live in the Torrid Zone. It is a tiny colored bird, called bumble due to the humming sound made by the fluttering of its wings.

The birds' wings flutter about 60 to 70 moves per a second.