Wildlife Welfare

Wild Bee Population Welfare Landscape

Wild bee populations including bumblebees and solitary bees face population pressures from pesticides, habitat loss, and disease that affect billions of individual insects and ecosystem function.

Key Facts

Over 250 wild bee species inhabit the UK with many in significant decline
Bumblebee queens experience winter survival challenges linked to habitat quality
Neonicotinoid pesticides impair navigation and foraging in field-realistic doses
Floral diversity in agricultural landscapes has declined sharply since the 1950s
Solitary bee nesting habitat including bare soil and hollow stems is increasingly scarce

Welfare Considerations

Wild bee welfare encompasses both the suffering of individual insects from pesticide exposure and food shortages, and the welfare of future individuals through population viability. Habitat provision and pesticide reduction at landscape scale provide the most impactful interventions for wild bee welfare.

What You Can Do

Create wild bee habitat by leaving bare soil patches and hollow plant stems
Reduce or eliminate pesticide use in your garden
Plant diverse native flowering plants to provide year-round foraging for wild bees