By Dr Konstantinos Tsiolis (Photo by Karen Smith)
The honeybee (Apis mellifera) is only one of the 270 bee species in the British Isles, but it is often the one that comes to mind when we hear about bees. There has been a significant decline in insects, including bees, hence the campaign “Save the Bees”. However, it is important to ask, which bees? Honeybees are not in decline, not globally, nor in the UK. On the other hand, wild bees are in decline due to habitat loss, climate change, pesticide use, reduction in floral resources and the spread of parasites and pathogens from managed bee species (Potts et al. 2016; Janousek et al. 2023).
The public often has the best intentions to help bees and nature, but a lack of awareness can sometimes cause more harm than good. Many people and businesses assume they can help bees by purchasing a beehive for their garden or rooftop. It is important to consider that in a beehive, up to 50,000 hungry honeybees can compete with wild bees and other pollinators for food resources. Recent studies highlight that high abundances of honeybees in a given area can negatively impact bee populations (Henry & Rodet 2018; Renner et al. 2021; MacKell et al. 2023). Stevenson et al. (2020) have shown that there is a high number of beehives in Greater London, considering the availability of food resources. PLT’s preliminary data for 2022 from the City of London has shown that honeybees were over 30% of recorded pollinators. This is a very high abundance if we consider that other urban pollinator studies often report honeybees at 7-8 %. Consequently, we expect such a high abundance of honeybees to negatively affect the abundance and diversity of wild bees and other pollinators in the City of London.
Bees are vital for pollination services in natural ecosystems (Ollerton et al. 2011) and our food crops (Klein et al. 2007). Honeybees are valuable pollinators but not the answer to all pollination needs. We need a diversity of bee species and other pollinators such as butterflies, hoverflies, beetles and wasps to ensure the sustainability of pollination services (Senapathi et al. 2021). PLT aims to increase awareness of the diversity of bees and other pollinators and the importance of such diversity.
So, let’s “Save the Wild Bees” and the rest of our precious pollinators. Their survival depends on both food and nesting resources. So, provide a diversity of pollinator-friendly plants (see a list here), as well as bee hotels for cavity-nesting bee species and bare ground for ground-nesting bee species at sunny locations.
References
Henry M, Rodet G (2018) Controlling the impact of the managed honeybee on wild bees in protected areas. Scientific Reports 8:1–10.
Janousek WM, Douglas MR, Cannings S, Clément MA, Delphia CM, Everett JG, Hatfield RG, Keinath DA, Koch JBU, McCabe LM, Mola JM, Ogilvie JE, Rangwala I, Richardson LL, Rohde AT, Strange JP, Tronstad LM, Graves TA (2023) Recent and future declines of a historically widespread pollinator linked to climate, land cover, and pesticides. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 120:e2211223120. [online] URL: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2211223120
Klein A-M, Vaissiere BE, Cane JH, Steffan-Dewenter I, Cunningham SA, Kremen C, Tscharntke T (2007) Importance of pollinators in changing landscapes for world crops. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 274:303–313. [online] URL: http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/cgi/doi/10.1098/rspb.2006.3721
MacKell S, Elsayed H, Colla S (2023) Assessing the impacts of urban beehives on wild bees using individual, community, and population-level metrics. Urban Ecosystems 4:1–10.
Ollerton J, Winfree R, Tarrant S (2011) How many flowering plants are pollinated by animals? Oikos 120:321–326.
Potts SG, Imperatriz-Fonseca VL, Ngo HT, Biesmeijer JC, Breeze TD, Dicks L V., Garibaldi LA, Hill R, Settele J, Vanbergen AJ, Aizen MA, Cunningham SA, Eardley C, Freitas BM, Gallai N, Kevan PG, Kovács-Hostyánszki A, Kwapong PK, Li J, Li X, MArtins DJ, Nates-Parra G, Pettis JS, Rader R, Viana BF (2016) The assessment report on Pollinators, Pollination and Food Production.
Renner SS, Graf MS, Hentschel Z, Krause H, Fleischmann A (2021) High honeybee abundances reduce wild bee abundances on flowers in the city of Munich. Oecologia 195:825–831. [online] URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-021-04862-6
Senapathi D, Fründ J, Albrecht M, Garratt MPD, Kleijn D, Brian J, Potts SG, An J, Anderson G, Baensch S, Basu P, Diego A, Bezerra DM, Bhattacharya R, Biesmeijer JC, Blauw B, Blitzer EJ, Bommarco R, Brittain CA, Carvalheiro LG, Cariveau DP, Chakraborty P, Chatterjee A, Chatterjee S, Cussler S, Danforth BN, Freitas BM, Garibaldi LA, Geslin B, Groot A De, Harisson T, Howlett B, Isaacs R, Jha S, Klatt BK, Krewenka K, Leigh S, Lindström S, Mandelik Y, Mckerchar M, Park M, Pisanty G, Rader R, Reemer M, Rundlöf M, Smith B, Silva P, Steffan-dewenter I, Webber S, Westphal C, Wickens JB, Wickens VJ (2021) Diversity increases temporal stability in global crop pollinator communities. The Royal Society 288:1–10.
Stevenson PC, Bidartondo MI, Blackhall-Miles R, Cavagnaro TR, Cooper A, Geslin B, Koch H, Lee MA, Moat J, O’Hanlon R, Sjöman H, Sofo A, Stara K, Suz LM (2020) The state of the world’s urban ecosystems: What can we learn from trees, fungi, and bees? Plants People Planet 2:482–498.
