Declining bee population will mean changes to countryside

SUMMER wouldn’t be the same without the drone of bees, as they busily and noisily convert nectar extracted from flowers to honey.

But Ireland’s bee population is facing a range of problems which are leading to a sharp drop in numbers.

Honey bees are under attack from a tiny mite, while almost half of the country’s bumble bee species are also in decline, with several of them in danger of extinction.

Reasons being put forward include changes in farming practices, use of pesticides and the huge growth in housing and urban development, which has been wiping out habitats.

Experts estimate that 60% of Ireland’s bees are wild and the big enemy at present is the varroa mite. The mite was first found in Asia over 100 years ago and has arrived here.

Leading beekeeper Philip McCabe, who has colonies north and south of the border, said this was the worst thing that ever happened to bees in Ireland.

“It (the mite) sucks up the blood from the honey bee and kills them, so beekeepers who don’t look after their bees will be wiped out if they don’t learn how to manage it,” he said.

Research is continuing into finding organic ways of dealing with the mite, while bee keepers are advised to use varroa screen floors in the meantime.

And, it is not just honey bees that are under threat. So, too, are their cousins, bumble bees. Ireland’s hedges and meadows used to support 18 bumble bee species, but surveys are only regularly finding three nowadays.

It is believed the reason for the loss of so many species is the widespread cutting down of hedgerows — yet another example of the effects wrought by ongoing destruction of natural features of the countryside.

The removal of ditches as part of farm development programmes has also had serious impacts on the bee population.

Production in Northern Ireland could be hit by the decline in the wild bee population, a leading beekeeper has warned.

Three of the Britain’s 25 species are already extinct and more face the same fate unless fast action is taken.

Jim Fletcher, of the Ulster Beekeepers’ Association, said it had been a very bad spring for the bees.

“It was a very bad April and May and the bees have not been able to forage as they require,” he remarked.

“The bumble bees have had problems with late flowering and the queens haven’t had the energy to build big nests for the production of their workers.”

The bee problem had been evident for several years and was partly down to people having nice tidy gardens, fields and hedgerows, observed Mr Fletcher, who has about 500,000 bees in his Co Down orchard.

“Many crops depend on bees for pollination and some, such as broad, field and runner beans, are heavily dependent on them. Without the insects, there would be little or no crop to harvest,” he pointed out.

“The possibility is that if we do not take sufficient care, we may run into problems with food production.”

Mr Fletcher urged people to leave a few wild corners in their garden to help the bees.

Ulster Unionist environment spokesman Sam Gardiner called on all gardeners to grow more traditional local plants to help reverse the decline in the bee population.

“Bees perform a vital role in the pollination of plants and are vital to eco-systems. Without bees, many native species of plants will disappear and this will have a knock-on effect on other species,” he said.

A new organisation, the Bumble Bee Conservation Trust, has been launched in Britain with the aim of halting falling bee numbers through conservation and education.

The organisation is encouraging the public to plant wildflowers, which provide nectar and pollen for bees and other wildlife.

Like the common honeybee, the bumble bee feeds on nectar and gathers pollen to feed its young. These creatures are beneficial to humans and the plant world alike, and tend to be larger and furrier than other members of the bee family. Most, but not all, bumble bee species are gentle.

Bumble bees are important pollinators of both crops and wildflowers, but are in danger in many developed countries due to habitat destruction and collateral pesticide damage. In Britain, until relatively recently, 19 species of native true bumblebee were recognised along with six species of cuckoo bumble bees — so-called because they dupe other species into looking after their young.

Of these, three have already become extinct, eight are in serious decline and only six remain widespread.

A decline in bumble bee numbers could cause large-scale sweeping changes to the countryside, due to inadequate pollination of certain plants.