Wild bees save harvests: This is how you protect our useful helpers!

Wild bees save harvests: This is how you protect our useful helpers!

Wild bees play a crucial role in the pollination of plants and are therefore an insurance for our harvests. However, they require suitable habitats consisting of food, nesting sites and diverse landscape structures. A mosaic of flowering areas, hedges, open areas and dead wood proves to be particularly important in meeting these needs uni-freiburg.de reported.

Perennial, natural flowering strips along fields, flowering islands in the garden and unmown field paths offer essential resources for wild bees. Native trees, such as wild roses, as well as piles of stones, clay walls and uncultivated garden areas also act as important places of retreat. Staggered flowering throughout the year, for example through clover grass borders and meadow herbs after the apple blossom, is essential for the food security of these insects.

Protective measures for wild bees

The decline of many bee species in recent decades is alarming and is reflected in the red lists. This development makes effective protective measures for bees necessary. The key to protecting wild bees lies in preserving their habitats wildbees.info highlights. This includes providing food sources, nesting sites and building materials.

One of the main reasons why wild bees are endangered is the destruction and deterioration of their habitats. Therefore, the protection and maintenance of these habitats are priority goals. Certain habitat types, such as coastal dunes, poor grasslands and dry, warm locations, require special area protection. The maintenance of former agricultural areas is also crucial in order to take into account the needs of the fauna, especially wild bees.

Need for targeted care

Although progress has been made in nature conservation over the past 40 years, many areas lack proper care. Technical means, such as chainsaws and bar mowers, are necessary to secure open land and maintain habitats for bee species that rely on soil disturbance and early succession stages. These areas should remain undisturbed for at least four to five years to create optimal conditions.

The development of habitat conditions must be initiated in a targeted manner, especially in structurally weak agricultural landscapes. In order to help wild bees in the long term, measures can often be implemented with little effort and can even increase yields, as is summarized in the “Practical Handbook on Crop Pollination – Increasing Yields by Promoting Biodiversity”.