Gardens buzzing with bees: Gardening expert tells how to care for bumble bees
There are few garden visitors that spark up as much excitement as the humble bumble bee.
While some people fear them for their ability to sting; these suprisingly gentle little fuzzballs also have a huge following of those who appreciate all they do for us; they are seen as a gardeners best friend with good reason.
To celebrate international bee day, which is approaching on the 20th May, I thought I would make this article all about beautiful buzzy bees.
Not enough people give them the respect that they deserve, for they are integral to the survival of all life on earth as one of the planets busiest pollinators.
One in every three bites of food you eat is thanks to a bee and 75% of our wild flora require pollination. Without bees, not only would we be hungry, but also miserable in a grey and barren world.
Ireland has 102 species of bee and only one of them produces honey, the rest are bumble bees and solitary bees, which are just as important and equally fascinating. To watch a leafcutter bee cut out a perfect circle and carry it off is one of my favourite sights.
Or the joy of finding one of those impossibly giant bumble bees that make you wonder how it can actually fly carrying a butt that the Kardashians would be jealous of.
Sadly, these insects are in decline, two of our native species have gone extinct in the last 80 years and others are in danger of joining them.
10 of our species are listed as endangered with six more critically so. We need to do our bit to help the creatures that help us so much!
A garden full of flowers is a garden full of bees! They find it easier to reach the nectar in flowers that hold only a single row of petals.
Double flowers are beautiful and frilly, but difficult to navigate when you’re less than an inch long. Studies have also shown that they tend to prefer purple/blue flowers.
Of course, having a field of easy to reach blue flowers means nothing if they are sprayed with herbicide or pesticide, so avoid these at all costs.
After food comes shelter, bumble bees often create nests underground, in long grass or piles of leaf litter.
Solitary bees like to burrow into bare patches of soil (a south facing slope is perfect) to build a nest while others find a pre-existing cavity and make it home.
These cavities can be holes in buildings, hollow plant stems, or bee boxes that are now widely available.
To make it comfortable for your fuzzy friends, be sure to hang it south or east facing between 1 and 2 meters off the ground.
The likelihood is that your garden is already home to a host of bees and you just never knew it.
When people find a bee that is exhausted and unable to fly, one thing that has become quite common is to give it a drop of honey to regain strength. This has been found to be one of the worst options as there is the chance that it contains pathogens (that are harmless to humans) but have the potential to kill an entire colony of bees.
Sugar water is also a common solution but also not the best option as it holds no nutrients, its just bee junk food. The best option is simply to move the bee to a flower, or if you still hold a fear of them, you can move a flower to the bee.
Whether you love them or fear them, there is no escaping that these creatures are both fascinating and fundamental to life as we know it.
We need to dispel the worry that these peaceable creatures are out to get us and accept that the only fear we should have about bees is the fear of losing them, for once they go. We will not be far behind.