Help the Humble Bumble

Ecotopia is on a quest to help the humble bumble bee!

Products available to assist the bumblebee.

Bumblebee Nester
Ceramic Bee Nester
Pollinating Bee Log

Bumblebees are among the most endearing and familiar of our insects. The sight and sound of bees droning methodically from flower to flower is a quintessential part of a summer’s day. Sadly, changes to the farmed countryside have not been kind to our bumblebees. The number of species found in most of lowland Britain has halved since 1950. Three species have gone nationally extinct and several more may follow in the near future unless we act quickly. The reason that bumblebees have declined in the countryside is simple. Bees feed exclusively on pollen and nectar, and there are far fewer flowers in the countryside than there once were. Hedges have been grubbed up and marshes drained. In particular, unimproved grasslands which are rich in wildflowers (haymeadows and chalk downland) have been almost entirely swept away, replaced by silage and cereal fields.
Bees in deline:
• Britain & Ireland have 25 native species of bumblebee
• 3 species have already become nationally extinct
• 5 are now designated UK Biodiversity Action Plan species, in recognition of their precarious situation with 2 more scheduled for inclusion.
• In total 15 have undergone major range contractions
• Several species face extinction unless action is taken.
Bumblebees are fascinating and beautiful creatures that deserve conserving in their own right. However, there are also pressing ecological and economic reasons to halt their declines.
Bumblebees are major pollinators of a majority of our flora. If bumblebees continue to disappear these plants will set less seed, potentially resulting in gradual but sweeping changes to the countryside. It may ultimately become dominated by an entirely different suite of plants that do not require bumblebee pollination. Clovers, vetches, and many rare plants may disappear. Indeed, there is evidence that this process is already underway. These changes will have catastrophic knock-on effects for other wildlife dependent on these plants. As such, it is often argued that bumblebees are keystone species, and that they are a conservation priority.
Bumblebees are also of commercial importance, being vital to the agricultural industry. Many arable and horticultural crops depend on bumblebees for pollination to varying degrees. Some, like oilseed rape, can set adequate seed without bumblebees provided there are sufficient honeybees, but others, such as broad, field and runner beans and raspberries are heavily dependent on bumblebees. Without them there would be little or no crop to harvest. There is already evidence that in some regions where fields are large and there are few hedgerows (in which bumblebee queens forage in spring and build their nests) crop yields are depressed due to a shortage of bumblebees.