The decline of bees is part of a much bigger picture. We like to think that we don’t rely on the natural world for much – wildlife exists for many of us solely in the background, as a pretty backdrop to our busy lives, something to watch on television or visit at the weekend. And yet few of us realise just how dependent we are on wild organisms for our very survival. Agriculture and human health rely heavily on the unpaid work done by an entire ecosystem that’s largely invisible – the worms and woodlice that create healthy soil for us to grow things in, the woodlands that pump fresh air into the environment, the wild birds that gobble up many of the pests that would otherwise ruin our crops and gardens.
Bees punch well above their weight when it comes to helping humans – keeping themselves busy, pollinating a vast array of our favourite foodstuffs. From almonds to coffee, strawberries to apples – at least a third of all our food is pollinated by bees and other creatures (not just crops, but also fruit, vegetables and the feeds given to meat and dairy animals). And while managed bees do some of this work, the lion’s share is still done by wild insects.
If bees disappeared – wild or managed – the results would be catastrophic. In some places, the unthinkable has already happened; in Hanyuan, China, for example, the widespread use of pesticides has decimated the wild bee population, leaving pear farmers with the laborious task of pollinating fruit trees by hand. Other countries have been finding their own solutions – in the Netherlands, for example, where half their 360 species of bees are threatened, scientists have developed a ‘robo-bee’, a tiny flying drone that will pollinate plants if bees aren’t around to do it. Leaving aside the moral implications, replacing bees with either people or machines is not a long-term strategy, not least because of how economically unfeasible it would be on any large scale.
Agriculture and human health rely heavily on the unpaid work done by an entire ecosystem that’s largely invisible
Instead of changing how we farm, some research is going into creating a ‘super bee’ capable of coping with the barrage of assaults that modern life throws at it. It’s still in its infancy but there is a plan to create a genetically modified bee that’s resistant to both natural and human hazards, not least pesticides but also varroa and other diseases. It’s a great idea on paper but many beekeepers worry about not only failing to tackle the root causes of bee decline but also the long-term effect of introducing a new, dominant, lab-designed bee on both traditional honey bee populations and wild species.
Beyond the relationship between bees and farming, about 90 per cent of wild plant species depend, at least in part, on pollination by bees and other pollinating creatures. It’s a rich, long-standing mutual relationship. A wide variety of plants – flowers and trees – can only exist if there is a wide variety of bees; bees come in all shapes and sizes, many with different tongue lengths and plant preferences. If we want our countryside to be filled with a glorious array of different plants, we need different types of bees to pollinate them. Equally, we can only support a wide range of bees if we leave them a varied enough range of plants to choose from.
And while lots of different animals are pollinators (including moths, flies, beetles, bats, hummingbirds and butterflies), bees are particularly good at it – the gold medal winners of the pollinator world. This is because both bee larvae and adults rely almost uniquely on pollen and nectar for their food. To get enough to eat, the number of visits bees make to flowers, as well as the distance travelled between flowering plants, is greater than any other kind of pollinating animal.
Interestingly, even plants that don’t need bees to help them pollinate seem to benefit from the presence of bees. Much of the conversation about bees and other pollinating insects has focused on their relationship with insect-pollinated plants. And yet, we know from various studies that bees (and other insects) also visit wind-pollinated plants and self-pollinating plants (like strawberries). Some plants have evolved so they can be pollinated a number of different ways – a form of ‘hedging their bets’ in case one method fails or disappears. This has two important implications – one for humans and one for bees. The first is that studies are showing that some plants actually grow better if they are pollinated by bees rather than one of their alternative methods – experiments with strawberry plants, for example, showed that those pollinated by bees were redder, brighter, firmer and showed fewer deformities than those that were pollinated in other ways. They also had a shelf life twelve hours longer than non-insect-pollinated strawberries. This may not sound like much but it means strawberries remain fresh for longer, adding significantly to the value of the crop. Previous studies have shown similar findings for melons, cucumbers and a number of other fruits.
Even plants that don’t need bees to help them pollinate seem to benefit from the presence of bees
We can also use this information when it comes to planting with bees in mind. Traditionally, ways of helping bees have focused on insect-pollinated flowers, but we now know that bees can make use of a number of other plants, not least wind-pollinated trees, which can produce huge amounts of pollen, often when flowering plants are yet to bloom. So, if we want to help bees, for example, we can look beyond fruit trees or ornamental blossom and include other species such as oak, maple and willow.