Gardeners urged to leave strip of lawn uncut to save bees
GARDENERS should leave at least a strip of lawn unmowed this summer to help halt the decline of bee populations, experts have said.
Perfectly manicured grass deprives crucial pollinating insects of the wildflowers they need to feed on, according to the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH).
A study by the organisation, published yesterday, shows wild bees and hoverflies have suffered widespread losses across the UK in recent decades.
Between 1980 and 2013, a third of more than 300 pollinating species included in the research experienced population declines, while only 11 per cent became more abundant, it found.
While currently around a third of pollination is carried out by honeybees, a scarcity of hives means crop farmers are highly reliant on their wild cousins and other insects, especially hoverflies.
The study reveals that many of these, especially those living in upland areas, are in particular need of help. Dr Helen Roy, a CEH ecologist, said that because most solitary bees have short tongues, they rely on easily accessible, open plants such as dandelion, cow parsley and hogweed. She urged gardeners to let these wildflowers thrive if possible.
Dr Gary Powney, who led the research, said leaving just one strip of lawn unmowed would make a significant difference.
The research, from records collected between 1980 and 2013, covered a total of 353 bee and hoverfly species and focused on 19,000 “cells” each covering a square kilometre of countryside.
The results, published in Nature Communications, revealed a biodiversity trend equivalent to losing four bee and seven hoverfly species per cell over the period. On average, the geographic range of bees and hoverflies declined by about a quarter, with the greatest losses in upland northern Britain.
Twenty-two of the most important pollinators were among the species “winners”, however Dr Powney warned it was “risky” to over rely on this group.
More than 1,000 flowers have been planted in cages to save a rare bumblebee in one of its last strongholds.
The project, launched on the Peak District moors near Sheffield, aims to boost populations of the threatened bilberry bumblebee by planting bilberry inside specially designed grazing-proof metal cages.
Bilberry is a vital food source for the declining bumblebee, essential for the bees and their larva.
Flowering in the spring and early summer before heathers and other moorland plants, grazing animals such as sheep and deer eat the young plants, leaving little for the bumblebees.
The Bumblebee Conservation Trust and the Eastern Moors Partnership – a joint initiative between the National Trust and the RSPB – have planted the caged bilberry across 60 acres of Hathersage Moor.
Samantha Herbert