The UK is home to over 240 species of solitary bee, from mining bees to mason bees and leafcutters. These vital pollinators receive far less attention than honeybees but face serious threats from habitat loss and pesticide use.
Solitary bees face both direct and indirect welfare impacts. Pesticide exposure causes neurological impairment, disorientation, and reduced ability to locate nests or provision young. Hard-surface garden trends deprive mining bees of nesting substrate. Climate mismatch — where bee emergence and flower bloom fall out of synchrony — causes foraging failure and starvation. The welfare significance of these harms depends on the degree to which solitary bees are sentient, which remains actively studied. Evidence of learning, memory, and behavioural flexibility in solitary bees suggests a capacity for subjective states, making their large-scale decline ethically relevant beyond ecological function.