Bee thoughtful this summer

Summer is well under way and hopefully you have heard the sound of bees busy in the bushes and flowers around the village. I say hopefully, because bees are in trouble, not just here in the UK but there is a decline in bees and pollinators across the world.

Bee Facts

There are over 20,000 known species of bee globally, and there are around 270 bee species recorded in the UK.

Different characteristics make them suited to different plants. The small and agile Early Bumblebee’s (often seen as early as February), make them perfect to enter plants with drooping flowers like comfrey, while the slightly bigger garden bumblebees, are much better at pollinating the deep flowers of honeysuckle and foxgloves.

Solitary nonstinging, Red Mason Bees are 120 times more efficient at pollinating apple blossoms than honeybees.

There is even evidence, to suggest that natural pollination by the right type of bee, improves the quality of the crops in terms of their nutritional value and shelf life

The study showed that bumblebees and solitary bees feed from different parts of strawberry flowers. In combination with each other, they produced bigger, juicier and more evenly-shaped strawberries. How amazing is that!

Of course, we all know that pollinators are important, but I wonder how many of us have actually stopped to think how important they might be.

Almost 90% of wild plants and 75% of leading global crops depend on animal/insect pollination.

One in three mouthfuls of every spoonful of the food we eat depends on pollinators.

Even plants grown to feed to livestock for meat production, such as clover and alfalfa, depend on bee pollination.

Why are pollinators under threat?

Three bumblebee species have become extinct in recent decades. The recent European Red List for Bees reports that almost one in ten species of wild bee face extinction, and over the past 50 years, half the bee, butterfly and moth species studied in the 2013 State of Nature Report have declined.

We can directly link these declines to changes in the way we farm. The intensification of agriculture has led to the destruction of habitat, and what is left is becoming increasingly fragmented. Further habitat loss is driven by urbanisation, and insect pollinators are also affected by the heavy use of pesticides and herbicides, the effects of climate change, and disease.

Thirty-five species of our UK bees are currently under threat of extinction.

Changing Landscapes

Maintaining our native flora depends on healthy pollinator populations. This includes wildflowers such as poppies, cornflowers and bluebells, as well as trees and shrubs. The close relationship between pollinators and the plants they pollinate is evident in the parallel declines seen across the UK and Europe: 76% of plants preferred by bumblebees have declined in recent decades.

Some bees have a particular affinity to certain plants, meaning they need a specific habitat. In the UK the scabious bee, our largest mining bee, relies on the pollen of scabious flowers for its survival. These plants grow on sandy or chalky open grassland, an important habitat for a variety of bees and pollinators. Unfortunately, these habitats are now under increasing threat from changing land use. The loss of particular habitats like this, is one of the main drivers of bee and pollinator decline.

Insensitive urban development and intensive farming have caused significant losses and fragmentation of pollinator-friendly habitats. The loss of these key habitats on farmland in particular, has meant that wildlife, including pollinators, have become more dependent on protected wildlife sites. Unfortunately, according to government figures, only 6% of habitats protected under law are in a ‘favourable condition’. Since the Second World War, we’ve lost 97% of our wildflower meadows, leaving our bees and pollinators with little natural habitat.

What can we do to help?

With so much of the habitat loss occurring across the country, some pollinator populations have been cut off from one another. One thing we can do to help is to try to support the infrastructure to enable our pollinators to get from one place to another.

Imagine trying to travel around Britain without our road and rail networks. Or imagine if nine out of every ten miles of road just didn’t exist – life would be very difficult. B-Lines are an imaginative and beautiful solution to the problem of the loss of flowers and pollinators. B-Lines are a series of ‘insect pathways’ running through our countryside and towns. They link existing wildlife areas together, creating a network, like a railway, that will weave across the British landscape.

Westcott could become a part of this network assisting pollinators to migrate from one area to another. This would increase their opportunity to mate and find other food sources which might at the moment, be beyond their little wings reach.

If you would like to help our pollinators this summer or next, then please think about the flowers you grow in your garden.

Or perhaps, if you don’t have green fingers, you might create a habitat for bees, you don’t need a hive. Solitary bees including Mining bees, nest in the ground, or Mason bees and Leafcutter bees nest in holes in dead wood, banks and walls.

More than ever, we need to protect the natural spaces we still have. To lose them would result in loss of further species which rely on them for their food. Without pollinators in our world our very existence would undoubtedly become more difficult. We are all intricately connected to nature – if we lose our natural spaces we lose not only the insects that support those spaces but we lose the biodiversity needed for a healthy world.

Nancy Lund