JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – A Group of Scientists in Missouri are asking for helping in counting the bumblebee population in the state.

The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation is sending conservationists to collect, count, and then release bumblebees.

This project hopes to learn the approximate population of bumblebees in Missouri to help create a database and a comprehensive plan to help repopulate low numbers in Missouri.

“We catch bees using a net and put them into little vials like this. You can use a little tube and put this in ice, and it makes the bee go dormant so we can take high-quality photographs and upload those to the internet where someone like myself can figure out which species we saw. Then the bees are released unharmed cause they warm up in the sun,” says Katie Lamke, Conservation Biologist at Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.

To sign up to help with the project, visit the society’s website.