DRE PEST CONTROL BLOG

Protecting our bees

12/6/2018

Bees are essential for healthy environment and economy.  We rely on them to pollinate our fruit, vegetables and plants – without them it would cost UK farmers £1.8 billion a year to pollinate our crops. In a world without bees, our food would cost a lot more to produce and our economy would suffer as a result. 

 

Help our nations pollinators and get involved with Bees’ Needs Week - 9th July to  15th July. The week long ‘Carnabee’ takeover is in support of Defra’s campaign to raise awareness of bees and other pollinators – and importantly, what we can do to help them thrive. 

 

 

Bees are perfectly adapted to pollinate, helping plants grow, breed and produce food. They do so by transferring pollen between flowering plants and so keep the cycle of life turning. 

 

Bees also pollinate around 80% of wildflowers in Europe, and if we continue to destroy the bees natural habitat with agriculture, housing, transport etc we will see further decline in the number of bee species and a significant decrease in their populations across the world.

 

Not all bees are the same. There are over 20,000 known species of bee globally. Around 270 species of bee have been recorded in the UK. One of these is the famous Honeybee.

 

Most Honeybees are kept by beekeepers in colonies of managed hives. The rest of our bees are wild, including 25 bumblebee species and more than 220 types of solitary bee. Like Honeybees, the familiar Bumblebees live in social colonies - usually in holes in the ground or tree cavities.

 

Solitary bees tend to nest on their own, as the name suggests. Each female builds and provisions her own nest with food. Solitary bees include Mining bees which nest in the ground, as well as Mason bees and Leafcutter bees that nest in holes in dead wood, banks and walls.

 

You can help to protect bees by creating 'bee-friendly' environments in your garden, parks and countryside. Bees depend on a variety of flowering plants, fruits and vegetables, and different bee species are attracted to different plants, at different times of the year, so make sure you plant a good selection of bee-friendly plants in your garden.