Toxins in bee-friendly plants

GARDEN centres are selling supposedly “bee friendly” plants that are in fact toxic for them, according to a leading biologist.

Professor Dave Goulson, from the University of Sussex, said: “One might go out, buy some lovely flowers, bring it home, plant it in your garden thinking you’re helping nature, the bees, or the butterflies or whatever. But actually sadly you might be doing more harm than good.”

The biology professor conducted a survey of stores and found a significant number of supposedly bee-friendly flowers were packed with pesticides.

He said: “We bought the flowers from big name garden centres like Wyevale, and also places like B&Q, Aldi and Homebase.” Of those sold with the promise of being good for wildlife and bees, only two out of 29 did not have any pesticides in them.

Moreover, 70 per cent of the flowers he bought had an insecticide in them which is known to be very toxic for bees. He added: “If enough people know about this and stop going to those places to buy these contaminated plants, then they will sort it out.”