Why BEES prefer middle class gardens: Insects forced out of their natural habitats seek out lavender, dandelions, brambles and buttercups to pollinate
- Changes to farmland are causing bees to seek refuge in green city spaces
- Allotments and urban gardens identified as the best environment for bees
- Garden owners are encouraged to mow their grass less and plant more flowers
Bees driven off farm land due to changes in their natural environments are finding refuge in the ‘posh’ urban gardens of the middle classes.
Private green areas inside towns and cities, as well as communal spaces like allotments and parks, have become safe spaces for the pollinating insects.
That’s down to the diversity of attractive species on offer, including lavender, dandelions, brambles and buttercups, researchers say.
Bees’ natural habitats are being threatened by the use of pesticides and man-made changes to the range of plant species found in the environment.
Bees driven off farm land due to changes in their natural environments are finding refuge in green spaces inside towns and cities. This image shows the hairy-footed flower bee, scientific name Anthophora plumipes
In the future, cities could become important for all insects, which face threats such as pest control on agricultural land, an international team of researchers found.
Results from their four-year study found allotments and urban gardens are the best environment for bees.
Gardens in richer areas typically had a wider range of flowers, the team found.
This is consistent with the so-called ‘luxury effect’ whereby higher socioeconomic status is often positively linked with urban biodiversity.
‘In our case, the effect is driven by the greater quality of floral resources for pollinators in wealthier neighbourhoods,’ the authors wrote in the study.
It identified urban allotments and household gardens as the best spaces for pollinating insects and suggests that these spaces are made more available to allow insects to thrive.
The type city gardens that attract pollinating insects the most include those with lavender, borage, dandelions, thistles, brambles and buttercups, species that gardeners can keep in mind when planting green spaces.
City gardens have become safe spaces for bees whose natural habitats are being threatened by the use of pesticides and man-made changes to flora, scientists have revealed. This image shows a bumble bee from the species Jan Bombus terrestris lucorum
Owners of garden spaces have been encouraged to mow their lawns less than usual to attract bees.
The study also recommended that public greenspaces should be managed so they benefit pollinators.
Parks, road verges and other greenspaces make up around a third of cities but have fewer pollinator visits and resources for pollinators than other land uses.
Gardens make up a quarter to a third of the area of UK cities and better garden management in new developments and existing gardens is likely to benefit pollinator conservation.
City planners and local councils should increase the number of allotments and other community gardens in towns and cities, experts say.
Allotments are good for pollinators as well as people and increasing their area even by a small amount could have a large positive effect on pollinators.
Professor Graham Stone, of the University of Edinburgh’s school of biological Sciences, said: ‘Pollinating insects are vital to supporting plant life, and urban spaces can play a key role in providing environments.’
‘Gardens can account for up to one-third of the area of towns and cities. The more flowers we plant at home, the better it is for bees, butterflies and other insects.’
The full findings were published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution today.