Garden centre and retail giant Homebase has announced it will stop using bee-harming pesticides called neonicotinoids.
Homebase has agreed to stop using these chemicals on garden plants. And it will clear its shelves of garden products containing neonicotinoids by the end of 2018.
Report from Friends of the Earth UK:
https://www.foe.co.uk/bees/homebase-finally-says-no-beeharming-pesticides
Some good news in the latest Autumn edition of Butterfly. B & Q have agreed to stop using neonicotinoid pesticides on their flowering plant range from Feb 2018. They have taken note of research showing that neonicotinoids are harming bees and birds and may be contributing to the decline of butterflies as well.
Here’s the link to the relevant Butterfly Conservation webpage.
https://butterfly-conservation.org/48-15805/bc-welcomes-bq-move-to-drop-neonicotinoids.html
http://www.monbiot.com/2017/10/23/insectageddon/
By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 20th October 2017
Which of these would you name as the world’s most pressing environmental issue? Climate breakdown, air pollution, water loss, plastic waste or urban expansion? My answer is none of the above. Almost incredibly, I believe that climate breakdown takes third place, behind two issues that receive only a fraction of the attention.
This is not to downgrade the danger presented by global heating – on the contrary, it presents an existential threat. It is simply that I have come to realise that two other issues have such huge and immediate impacts that they push even this great predicament into third place.
One is industrial fishing, which, all over the blue planet, is now causing systemic ecological collapse. The other is the erasure of non-human life from the land by farming. ……..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-39003201
Scientists investigated the species honey bees liked most during spring as part of efforts to protect the bees’ environment and better understand their habits.
Peonies, wallflowers, roses, and hyacinth are among the top 10 favourite garden plants.
Favoured wild plants include gorse, willow, hawthorn, oak and dandelion.
Research head Dr Natasha de Vere said bees face a lack of habitat brought about by the loss of hedgerows, woodland and meadows rich in plant species.
Without a healthy and diverse diet, they are unable to withstand pressures from pests, disease and insecticides.
“The main conclusion is that, during the spring, honey bees need native hedgerow and woodland plants, which means we must conserve these habitats,” Dr de Vere added.
“The research also tells us that honey bees are supplementing this main diet with smaller amounts from parks and gardens – proving what we do in our own backyard is crucial.”
The project – part of the Carmarthenshire garden’s Saving Pollinators scheme – identified plant DNA in honey collected from its eight hives and quarter of a million bees.
Of the 437 different types of plants in flower in April and May in the botanic garden, only 11% were used by bees.Honey bees need access to a wide variety of food throughout spring as they replenish honey stores and feed their young.
The research, carried out by Aberystwyth and Bangor university scientists, found their diet is supplemented by spring-flowering bulbs.
Other favourites include apple and cherry trees, hellebores, oak, holly, and wallflowers.
Researchers now plan to analyse honey from across Wales to understand what bees eat in other parts of the country.
Bee Friendly Monmouthshire 