Where are all the bees?

Slinky

What's going on? Is it the horrible wet spring? We've got a lot of lavender and verbena in flower in the garden. Previous years the garden would be teeming with bees, and this year there's almost none. A small bumble-type bee earlier, and some very small honey bee-like types. Not many butterflies, and we're not exactly awash with birds. We are still using suet based feeders, no sunflower hears and peanuts, but even the baby bluetits seen to be elsewhere at the moment.

.What's it like where you are? We're east Anglia.

Keep_pedalling

There is a general large fall in insect numbers but I am not noticing a big drop off from last year in either number of species or overall numbers in our small Cambs garden.. Seems a better year for butterflies than last plenty including a good influx in Painted Ladies (I have caterpillars on my globe thistles which is a first).

elsien

My garden in the Midlands is a bit short on insects generally although I tried to plant insect friendly plants. At the moment fewer bees, fewer butterflies, fewer ladybirds.

it is concerning.

Rhyddid2026

I have more butterflies and fewer bees this year, but that might be because my chickens have eaten most of the comfrey and the bees love comfrey flowers. I still see a handful each day in my garden (South Wales) and one landed on my shoulder for a little rest a couple of days ago.

marcia_

I'm in the north west and have seen a big decline in the bees in the garden. We have 2 huge lavender bushes as well as other flowers and I've only noticed one big bumblebee

Emmia

London - lots of bees, loving my jasmine, salvias and other plants. A mix of species. Also seem to have lots of hover flies visiting.

twopenny

Somerset - lots of the smaller bees and definitely more butterflies.

I'm missing the huge bumblebees, one used to wizz past the back door same time every morning.

But I'm putting it down to loosing my big hedge of lavender pinata to the wet/dry combo storms. I found that different bees like different types of lavender. Small solitaries like the Hidcote, bigger bumbles the Pinata and butterflies the old English.

Found I've got more insects since letting the lawn grow, mainly because I've had an op and can't cut it.

On the whole though lack of insects compared to 20yrs ago when I used to have to clean my car windscreen every two days. Now none at all squidged.

I'd say that so many people have tarmacked over gardens for car standing and back ones too.

Have you seen the programme My Garden of 1000 bees?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002t686/my-garden-of-a-thousand-bees

middlewife

In Reading, no change in birds, drop in butterflies, but my neighbour removed her buddleia so she could put in a fence 😔 less bees, but then didn't go outside much in the hot weather to check! As 2p says, even on a long car journey, hardly any insects on windscreen

Keep_pedalling

Before I moved out of Cambridge a couple of years ago I used to do butterfly surveys for the RSPB at Fen Drayton nature reserve and there was a huge difference in diversity at that site and the more urban reserve at Trumpington Meadows which had a large population of Marbled Whites (only saw one at Fen Drayton) over 5 years), and seen the return of Small Blues to Cambs after many decades of absence.

This may be related to the heavy use of pesticides in agricultural areas, so our urban green spaces and gardens are becoming more important for our wild life. I don’t use any pesticides and just let thing ballance themselves out, for instance the masses of black bean aphids on our globe thistles have attracted masses of 7-spot Ladybirds which are rapidly reducing the numbers.

Dustyevsky

Things seem fairly consistent in our area of Devon. Locally, the big farm has converted from grain to sheep, the former having knackered their land, so with less spraying, there should be a benefit all round. We own species-rich fields and plant for pollinators, finding plenty of insect life.

I do recall woods in this area humming with insects when I was a child in the 60s. I don't hear that now, but then, I've attended a few rock concerts since then!

p00hsticks

Most of them are apparently in my husbands shed…..