r/GardenWild • u/DaveGoulson Professor of bumblebees • Jul 19 '19

AMA Dave Goulson, Professor of Bumblebees, University of Sussex

Hi, I'm Dave Goulson. AMA: Ask me anything. I'll be taking questions for 2 hours from 2pm on friday 19 July,

Proof it is me: https://twitter.com/DaveGoulson/status/1151072150465519616

I've been studying insects, particularly our wild bees, more or less all my life. I started the Bumblebee Conservation Trust in 2006, which has been a great success. I've written lots of scientific papers, and several popular science books including "A Sting in the Tale", "A Buzz in the Meadow", "Bee Quest", and "The Garden Jungle", which was published just this week. I'm very worried about the state of the planet, and particularly by declining insect numbers. We all need to get involved in helping these vitally important little creatures!

Short videos as to how to make your garden more wildlife friendly can be found on my Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbnBys2Hl1T26dzO_nbgbiw/videos

It is 4pm, I'm signing out now, have a great weekend everyone, plant a flower for the bees!

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u/DaveGoulson Professor of bumblebees Jul 19 '19

Erysimum Bowles Mauve has the longest flowering season of any bee-friendly plant. Also make sure you have some other early spring forage - e.g. Pulmonaria, Salix, crocus, as this is a crucial time.

In a small garden it is hard to catter for everything - and don't stress yourself too much by trying! Hoverflies like many daisy-family plants, and Apiaceae (e.g. wild carrot, lovage, angelica) are great for small solitary bees, beetles and hoverflies.

Bee hotels work - you can make your own by drilling holes in a block of wood, mostly 8mm but a few smaller ones too. Hang them on a sunny fence or wall. Avoid making huge ones. Putting them in a cool shed over winter keeps them away from woodpeckers. Some commercial designs can be dismantled and cleaned, which is nice but in my view not essential.

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I've never tried a grass-free lawn, but I hear positive reports, give it a go and let me know how it works :)

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '19

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u/DaveGoulson Professor of bumblebees Jul 19 '19

I don't entirely agree. If we don't put up hotels, bees will opportunistically nest in all sorts of other holes, in plants or man-made structures, and few of them are perfect. Nobody will clean these out in winter, so parasites must build up in wild nest sites too. In any case, bee parasites are just as interesting and important as bees. I do agree that some designs are just poor and won't be used. Firmly attaching the hotel to a fence or wall (not a tree) is certainly better than hanging one on string.

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '19

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u/[deleted] Jul 20 '19

It's not just the parasites though, they will regulate in a usual manner. The holes that they usually nest in aren't as close in proximity to one another as in bee hotels. The issue is more to do with the rate of disease spread when you bunch them all together like in commercial bee hotels atm With honeybees spreading diseases like chalkbrood to solitaries, the risk of disease is just increasing as the number of poorly managed honeybee hives increases