Bees and other insects are essential to pollinate one-third of our food crops – but bee populations are in decline due to the use of pesticides, habitat loss and disease.
Here’s our Big Green Ideas List for rewilding and supporting bees and beneficial insects.
Get the politicians on board
Ask your council to make roadside verges bee-friendly
According to the wildlife charity Plantlife, 97% of the UK’s wildflower meadows have been lost since the 1930s [1]. This habitat loss is one of the reasons bees and other beneficial insects are in decline.
Roadside verges are part of the solution. There are nearly 500,000 km (310,000 miles) of roadside verges in the UK, and many councils are now saving money (as well as the environment) by mowing less often and not spraying them. If your council hasn’t caught on yet, suggest it.
Find out how to encourage your local council to be bee-friendly
Lobby your political representative to ban bee-killing pesticides
Write to your MP or political representative to tell them you support them taking a stand against pesticide giants like Bayer and Monsanto, and follow Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth to support campaigns against the use of neonicotinoids and similar pesticides.
Read more about banning bee-killing pesticides
For more ways to influence companies, politicians and people you know, see our Influence page.
Let the wild things grow
Plant bee-and-insect-friendly plants in your borders
Create safe, pesticide-free habitats for bees and beneficial insects by planting bee-friendly and insect-friendly plants in your garden.
Read more about growing bee-friendly plants at home.
Re-wild entire spaces
Give part of your garden, farm, or public space over to nature. Re-wilded areas absorb more carbon and allow birds and insects to thrive.
Do less work!
Allow wildflowers to grow in your lawn
Most of us have been brought up believing that only a perfect, uniform swathe of green lawn is acceptable. But maintaining a lawn made up of only one type of grass takes time and money, adds harmful chemicals to the soil and reduces the diversity of creatures in your lawn.
Allowing wildflowers to grow in your lawn makes for an easier life, improves biodiversity, supports insects and looks really pretty.
Let your grass grow long
Keep the mower in the shed in May! Letting your grass grow in May allows more flowers to bloom, providing pollinators with up to 10 times more nectar. Wildlife charity Plantlife encourages all gardeners to take part in #NoMowMay, followed by #LetItBloomJune and #KneeHighJuly for committed non-mowers.
Leave your leaves
Fallen leaves provide food and shelter for wildlife, gradually decompose returning nutrients to the soil, and form a mulch cutting down on spring weeding. Many pollinators overwinter in dead leaves and last year’s dry, hollow stems, so leave the spring tidy-up until late April to give the insects time to mature and fly away.
Create habitats for bugs
Create a bee house or bug hotel
Bundles of twigs or hollow bamboo sticks, tied together, can provide a home for beneficial insects. It’s a good project for children and encourages them to think about insects in a positive way.
See also – Leave your Leaves, above.
Support local bee populations
Learn (and teach) the difference between bees, wasps & hoverflies
There are lots of types of bees, not just the bumblebees we know and love. Their smaller relatives, honey bees, are often killed because people think they’re wasps.
Usually, bees are fuzzy, tuck their legs in when they fly, and ignore you, while wasps are almost hairless, dangle their legs when flying, and can be aggressive. However, even wasps perform a vital role as they eat aphids and caterpillars, and pollinate flowers as they search for nectar.
Hoverflies look like bees, but they have no stinger, and they only have two wings instead of four. They won’t hurt you, they are important pollinators and their larvae eat aphids, so they are all-round good guys.
You can catch bees, hoverflies and wasps using a glass and a piece of card, and release them outside.
Know which local beekeepers remove swarms
Knowing who your local beekeepers are could help if you get an unexpected swarm on your property. Instead of calling pest control, leave the swarm alone for a day to see if they just move on. If they don’t, contact your local beekeepers to see if they can remove the swarm safely.
Support your local beekeepers
Keeping bees can be expensive. Support beekeepers by buying local honey or beeswax, or you could sponsor a hive (or Google to find a scheme close to where you live).
Get a hive
If you have the time and are prepared to learn how to look after your bees, keeping your own bees is a great way to support local bee populations. Learn about beekeeping on the British Bee Keepers Association website.
[1] Plantlife. 2021. Real Action Needed To Save Our Vanishing Meadows. [online] Available at: https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk/about-us/news/real-action-needed-to-save-our-vanishing-meadows [Accessed 25 January 2021].
Image credits:
Bee on flower – photo by Sensei Minimal on Unsplash
Wildflowers (poppies) – photo by Lucie Hošová on Unsplash
Wildflowers – yellow daisies – Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Grass verge with daisies and dandelions in front of a stone wall – photo by Kate Spencer
Bug hotel – photo by Lucas van Oort on Unsplash
Bee keeper in a meadow – photo by Bee Naturalles on Unsplash