Wild Bees and Habitat Provision | Animal Welfare Hub

Wild bee populations — including hundreds of solitary bee species — are declining across much of the world, with habitat loss, pesticides, and disease combining to reduce the populations that underpin ecosystem health.

Key Facts

There are over 20,000 species of wild bees globally; most are solitary ground or stem nesters rather than hive formers
Wild bees provide the majority of pollination for wild flowering plants and a significant proportion for crops
Solitary bee populations have declined by up to 30% in some European countries since the 1980s
Ground-nesting bees require bare or sparsely vegetated soil — a habitat increasingly rare in managed landscapes
Stem-nesting bees use hollow plant stems and deadwood that tidy garden management removes
Wildflower-rich habitats provide the diverse pollen and nectar resources different bee species require

Welfare Considerations

Wild bee welfare is both individual and collective. Individual bees facing reduced food availability, pesticide exposure, or habitat loss experience physiological stress and reduced fitness. Colony-level effects in bumblebees — the social wild bee most analogous to honeybees — cascade through the shared reproductive success of the group. Individual solitary bees that cannot find nest sites cannot reproduce. The welfare and conservation dimensions are inseparable: habitat provision that supports wild bee populations improves the welfare of billions of individual insects. Garden-level interventions have measurable effects and represent one of the most accessible personal contributions to insect welfare.

What You Can Do

Create bare ground patches or bee hotels for ground-nesting and cavity-nesting wild bees
Let garden areas go wild with native flowering plants rather than managed monocultures
Avoid pesticide use in gardens where bees forage
Leave plant stems standing through winter to provide overwintering sites for stem-nesting species
Advocate for agricultural land management requirements that include wildflower margins for wild bee habitat