Chips would be off the menu if it weren’t for bees!
May 20th is the United Nation’s World Bee Day and a scientist at the University of Hull is encouraging people to look after the creatures and reduce the threat to our planet and our plates.
Dr James Gilbert says only bumblebees, and a few species of solitary bee, can carry out the pollination of potatoes and other plants in the Nightshade family. They beat their wings at just the right frequency to release pollen from the flower allowing the survival of potatoes, and chips for tea!
Dr Gilbert says potatoes mostly rely on bumblebees. There are currently 24 species of bumblebee in the UK, and two species of bumblebee were declared extinct in the 20th century - others facing shrinking populations.
Dr Gilbert, who lectures in Zoology, said: “It is fair to say: no bumblebees, no chips! In fact, there are several plants that are dependent on what is known as buzz pollination for their survival. This includes tomatoes, blueberries, aubergines, and kiwifruit. But buzz pollination is not the whole story - a third of all food, or every third bite you take, comes from a plant pollinated by an insect like a bee.”
He added: “People associate bees with honey, but honeybees are not under threat. For a healthy ecosystem that allows plants to be pollinated, you need a diverse community of bees, because like the potato some things need a specialist to survive. If you rely on just a few species of bees to do our pollination, then you are in a risky game. The more we protect our biodiversity the more resilient we are to change.”
Bee populations are declining in part because of habitat loss, poor nutrition and pesticides, and there are lots of simple ways for people to help.
He said: “One easy thing to do is to let your garden grow. Don't use pesticides, don’t mow your lawn as much, and encourage a diverse number of plants to grow - herbs and wildflowers are good. Other simple things you can do are to have a compost heap and not to use peat. Bee hotels are good, but it is worth doing your research before you buy or create a bee hotel because poorly made bug hotels can be dangerous to insects.”
Dr Gilbert, is also encouraging people to see beyond the famous honeybee.
He said: “There are 250 types of bees in Britain, of which honeybees are only one! For example, you can find many kinds of mining bees by looking for mini ‘volcano’ shapes of earth in your lawn. Ashy Mining Bees, which look like little pandas, live in sandy banks. Red Tailed Mason Bees live in empty snail shells. Wool carder bees like to gather the soft fur from leaves such as lamb's ears to line their nests - while leafcutter bees cut perfect circles out of the leaves of roses and other plants. There is a wonderful world of bees out there and we need to preserve it.”
Dr Gilbert, has been a researcher for 17-years, has just embarked on a three-year study to see whether wild bees adjust the food they gather when temperatures rise. The offspring of a bee is dependent on its parent to be fed the right nutrient balance, but there is no one ideal diet for all conditions. One concern in a warming world is whether bees will choose to adjust to the new temperature by pollinating different plants to feed their growing young.
In the past he has shown that species like dung beetles, where parents feed their young, have to make very different choices about how many offspring to have, and how big those offspring are, compared to species that do not feed their young, like grasshoppers.
He has worked in the Australian Outback with insects called thrips. Sometimes they raise their young alone and sometimes they share the duties with others. He discovered that these parents decide whether or not to cooperate partly based upon the food they have eaten.