The Bee Blog
Breaking news – Bee killed by microplastic fibre May 2020
A beautiful buff tailed bumble bee was found dead at the side of the path. Thinking this was a bit early in the spring for this to be natural I took it home. To my horror it was entangled in microplastic fibre and looked like it had tried to get rid of this by stinging it.
Is this another reason for the reduction in numbers of bees along with habitat loss and pesticides? Maybe microplastic fibre tangled in the legs reduces the amount of pollen it can carry, or in the eye stops it navigating, or in the wing stops it flying. It would be like us carrying around a garden hose pipe.
Last autumn I looked at the dead bees and wasps found naturally out doors. Seventy percent of them had microplastic on the bodies. Of the two found so far this year, it is two out of two. Another reason to reduce the tide of fast fashion?
SBM May 2020
Bees are amazing June 2018
If you ask a child what is special about a bee, most will say they make honey, a few will say they sting. Both answers are right, sort of.
There are three types of bee:
- The honeybee,
- The bumblebee,
- The loner, the solitary bee.
There are thousands of species of bee worldwide and about 270 of these have been seen in the UK.
But of these hundreds of bee types, only one is the Honeybee and these mainly live in commercial hives where the honey is harvested and sold. Bumblebees are often the big fluffy ones and there are about 25 species in the UK. The rest are solitary, and unlike the honeys and bumbles, which live in social groups, they live alone and care for their offspring themselves.
So yes, bees make honey, but not many of them.
And yes, bees sting, but if they do some will die, so it is an action of last resort when they are protecting their hive or are made very angry. Leave a bee alone and it will leave you alone. This is unlike the wasp which is often aggressive and can spoil a summer picnic by not going away. The common wasp is the one with the very narrow waist.
Bees are amazing because they are a perfect pollinating machine. Wasps are pollinators as well but not as good as the bees.
Power lines and bees June 2018
Why are bee numbers falling so much? One answer is the use of insecticides but there are other reasons as well. A really interesting, and potentially explosive, report has recently been published in Scientific Reports. This implicates the low frequency electromagnetic field as an important stressor for the Honey bee, leading to altered learning, flight and less successful foraging for food. This will ultimately lead to reduced pollination and less food production.
The original reports that the overhead power lines cause an increase in childhood leukemia have been thoroughly discredited, and the World Health Organisation have clearly stated that it is safe to live near power lines. Maybe this will happen with this report. What is inevitable is that more research is now needed.
Read more at
Extremely Low Frequency Electromagnetic Fields impair the Cognitive and Motor Abilities of Honey Bees S. Shepherd et al, Scientific Reports volume 8, Article number: 7932 (2018) |
How can YOU help?
What can we as individuals do about the bee number decline?
We can do many things to help
- Never kill a bee
- Never spray a swarm of bees, they won’t hurt you.
- Give the loner bees somewhere to overwinter, which is safe and protected from the rain. Build a bee hostel, even a five star bee hotel.
- Provide them with food, perhaps a patch of wild flowers in a garden or window box, and give them access to rain water.
- Reduce the amount of insecticides and weedkiller you use in your garden.
- Make children aware and help them to carry on good practice. After all, we are doing this so the next generation can live in a world with food security and beauty.
Why are bees so political? Neonics strike
Because they have stopped buzzing. Bees are being killed by insecticides used in agriculture. This is Rachel Carson’s ‘Silent Spring’ all over again.
But good news for bees, similar to when DDT was banned in the 1960’s, the UK is now going to support an extended ban on the insecticide under scrutiny today, the neonicotinoids (neonics).
The neonics are very toxic and have caused the collapse of the honey bee numbers. However the debate remains highly contentious and polarised. The supporters of the use of these chemicals are paid by the companies that make them. New evidence has now been published where good quality field trials have been done. The authors conclude that the neonics are causing bee death. The company scientists are still arguing.
Do you know how these chemicals kill the bees? Do you know what the alternative insecticides are? Our society is dependant on our farmers producing quality crops in high yield. But they have to be safe to eat in the short term and the long term. And they must not kill off the very insects that pollinate them. What will farmers use instead?
As a young scientist, make your arguments more persuasive by knowing the science behind the hype.
Do you know the difference between a honey bee and a bumble bee?
Read more at:
Country-specific effects of neonicotinoid pesticides on honey bees and wild bees Woodcock1B. A. et al , Science 30 Jun 2017:Vol. 356, Issue 6345, pp. 1393-1395 DOI: 10.1126/science.aaa1190
Chronic exposure to neonicotinoids reduces honey bee health near corn crops Tsvetkov N et al,Science 30 Jun 2017: Vol. 356, Issue 6345, pp. 1395-1397 DOI: 10.1126/science.aam7470
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