Rewilding efforts sees spring upsurge in bees
SPRING has truly sprung and the hum of the bumblebee has returned to our gardens – and there’s a buzz about reports of particularly high numbers of the species here in recent weeks.
Dr Úna FitzPatrick of the National Biodiversity Data Centre said it is too early to say for sure if rewilding schemes are reversing the worrying decline in our bee populations.
But Heritage Minister Malcolm Noonan told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘Certainly anecdotally, I think people are seeing a lot more insects.’
Mr Noonan partly attributes this to the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan. The scheme is now in its eighth year and encourages more bee-friendly practices in all sectors – farming, business, local governance and gardening.
Many homes, businesses and public places have given lawns or strips of lawn back to nature.
The Carlow-Kilkenny TD said: ‘In my own garden I found a tawny mining bee, which was thought to be extinct up to 2012, but there were recorded species found in Co. Kilkenny in recent years and I was delighted to find them burrowing in my lawn in the depths of the lockdown.
‘It gives you great hope that if we make the right interventions and we all tread lighter on the land, I think we can turn the tide of biodiversity loss around.’
Seán Ó Griofa of Portmarnock Honey explained: ‘This is the time of year when the queen bumblebees are waking up. You very rarely see worker bumblebees at this time of year. If you see a bumblebee at this time of year, the chances are it’s a queen. They find a dry area to hibernate in for the winter.
‘They’ll be waking up now, they’ll be foraging for protein and they’ll be making their initial nest and laying some eggs and female worker bees will be produced from that.
‘They’ve been active for the last three or four weeks now.’
Along with much of the world, many of Ireland’s bee species are in danger of extinction thanks to habitat destruction caused by human behaviour.
Paul Handrick, who runs the not-for-profit Bee Sanctuary of Ireland in Co. Wicklow – ‘the only native wild bee sanctuary on the planet’ – said: ‘People are noticing them and there’s more awareness of bees in general.
‘I think if people hear there’s more bees, they’ll think, “Oh that’s grand, we’ve solved the problem, we can move on”. We very much haven’t. The work hasn’t even begun.’
Although he appreciates the aesthetic appeal of planting pretty wildflowers or sunflowers, Mr Handrick said the dandelion was as good a tool as any for helping bees. He added: ‘You can sow a few wildflowers around the edge of the lawn, but the best thing to do is just let it grow and see what comes up. We watch here and there’s wildflower after wildflower that come up naturally.
‘A lot of people say to leave a strip for nature. We say take a strip for yourself and leave the rest for nature.’ He also said keeping hives should also be approached with caution.
‘We’re not anti-beekeeping, it’s been done for thousands of years,’ he said. ‘But when it comes to the messaging around saving our bees that are in trouble – which are our native wild bees, our bumblebees, our solitary bees – keeping honey bees is in no way part of the solution. It can actually be detrimental.’