What happens to the bees we catch?

Insect collections are a good hobby to have, and an even better tool for research. One might think you just go catch insects and pop them into a box, but a little more needs to happen in order to preserve them for a collection.

Depending on your collection method, washing, blow drying, pinning, and labelling all need to happen to keep our collection usable!

After doing these steps and putting them in a box, our wonderful Jen Hayes and taxonomists will identify them to species. There are so many morphs and intricacies that you may not even realize two look-alike bees may just be completely different species. My favorite thing about the process is seeing the fluffy bumblebees after blow-drying!

Anyways, here’s a short video showing how we go from catch to box!

Video and music made by Devon Johnson