Click the button above to test the Bumblebee Nest Detector App currently in Beta testing.

Bumblebee Nest Finder

Bumblebee nests are some of the best-hidden structures in nature. Most species build them underground, often in old rodent burrows, or at the surface tucked into grass tussocks. Even scientists find them hard to locate, and some research teams have trained detection dogs to sniff them out.

This tool listens instead. Using your phone's microphone, it picks up the low-pitched flight buzz of passing bees and tracks how often that sound happens. Bees from a colony make repeated trips in and out of the same spot, so a place with steady, concentrated buzz traffic is a good candidate for a nest entrance. Log promising spots, then watch quietly from a distance to confirm.

Listening for flight buzzes isn't a gimmick. Researchers have used acoustic monitoring to track bumblebee activity in the field, and buzz counts closely matched what observers saw by eye.

Why it matters: we know a lot about where bumblebees feed, but surprisingly little about where they nest. Every nest someone notices is a small window into one of the least-studied parts of a bumblebee's life.

When to use it: spring through late summer, while colonies are active. By fall the colony dies off and only new queens survive, overwintering alone underground, so there's nothing to hear.

Key Sources & DOIs

Where bumblebees nest, and why nests are hard to find

• Liczner, A.R. & Colla, S.R. (2019). A systematic review of the nesting and overwintering habitat of bumble bees globally. Journal of Insect Conservation, 23, 787–801. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-019-00173-7
• Pugesek, G. & Crone, E.E. (2021). Contrasting effects of land cover on nesting habitat use and reproductive output for bumble bees. Ecosphere, 12(7), e03642. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.3642

Detection dogs

• Liczner, A.R., MacPhail, V.J., Woollett, D.A., Richards, N.L. & Colla, S.R. (2021). Training and usage of detection dogs to better understand bumble bee nesting habitat: Challenges and opportunities. PLOS ONE, 16(5), e0249248. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249248

Listening for flight buzzes

• Miller-Struttmann, N.E., Heise, D., Schul, J., Geib, J.C. & Galen, C. (2017). Flight of the bumble bee: Buzzes predict pollination services. PLOS ONE, 12(6), e0179273. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0179273