Another depressing statistic – 2024 was the worst year for bumblebees since records began – can’t have surprised anyone who can remember the cold and wet spring last year. Populations of common species like white-tailed and red-tailed bumblebees fell by 60% and 74% respectively, and other garden favourites like the buff-tailed and garden bumblebees also suffered
Pity the poor, newly-emerged bumblebee queens having to be single mums feeding themselves and their larvae, and also incubate the nest in such inhospitable weather and lack of food due to the climate crisis. Add to this the loss of so much habitat its no wonder populations are becoming smaller and weaker, says the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.
The good news is that gardens offer so much potential to help bumblebee populations thrive. These tips to help bumblebees in your garden come from
www.bumblebeeconservation.org/beethechange
- Grow plants that flower in different seasons, especially for feeding those bumblebee queens in early spring e.g. grape hyacinth, comfrey, pulmanaria, hellebore and perennial wallflower.
- Don’t use garden chemicals.
- Mow your lawn less often so that dandelions and other nectar-rich perennials can flower.
- Grow herbs, vegetables and fruit – bumblebees love the flowers and provide the essential pollination service for us.
- Make space for bumblebees to nest in patches of long grass, compost heaps, and bird boxes stuffed with insulating sheep’s wool.
- Make a home for 5 top wildflowers that feed bumblebees in your garden – white clover, dandelions, common mallow, white dead-nettle, and common knapweed.
- Tell your neighbours to help bumblebees too!
For further information look on the website above and have a read of Dave Goulson’s wonderful book “Gardening for Bumblebees”.
We have to hope that all of our gardens together can really make a difference in helping make larger, joined-up and more resilient, habitats for bumblebees in our changing world!