16 July 2021
Why are bees important?
Bees play a vital role in the food chain. Nearly one third of the food we eat relies on insect pollination, the majority of which is accomplished by bees, and 90% of the leading global crop types are visited by bees. Insect pollination contributes £690 million per year to the UK economy and around £120 billion per year globally.
Whilst bees are not the world's only pollinators - flies, wasps, moths, beetles and even some birds, bats and lizards all pollinate – these creatures only do so to feed themselves. Bees stand out as pollinators because they generally visit many more flowers, which makes them much more effective.
Bee species
Not all bees are the same: there are over 20,000 known species of bee globally and around 270 recorded in the UK. Only one of these is the famous, domesticated honeybee most people are familiar with. Wild bees are the most diverse and are vital for pollination of many crops which cannot be pollinated by domesticated honeybees.
Much of the food we eat on a daily basis comes from crops dependent on bees for survival, including tomatoes, aubergines, raspberries and blueberries.
Different plants and crops rely on unique species of bee for pollination. For instance, bumblebees are particularly good pollinators of crops such as tomatoes due to their ability to “buzz pollinate”. This is the process where a bee lands on the flower, bites into the top of it and vibrates its flight muscles to fire out pollen from hidden pockets in the tomato flower. Elsewhere, Peponapis and Xenoglossa bees, are excellent squash pollinators – hence their nickname, "squash bees".
Even self-pollinating crops that don’t need bees to pollinate, like peppers and strawberries, benefit from cross-pollination aided by bees which leads to higher fruit set. Bees can also be essential pollinators for grape growers and wine producers by pollinating the cover crops used in vineyards.
What are the threats to bees?
Despite the critical part bees play in maintaining our wild and agricultural landscapes, they are seriously at risk, with a 2019 UK study showing that a third of British wild bees and hoverflies are in decline
Some pesticides represent a potential threat to bees, with biologists finding various pesticide residues in pollen and nectar itself.
Contact pesticides are usually sprayed directly onto plants, and some active ingredients can harm or kill bees if they come into direct contact with these spray applications.
In contrast, systemic pesticides are usually incorporated into the soil or onto seeds and move up into the stem, leaves, nectar, and pollen of plants reaching bees as they harvest the pollen and nectar of treated plants. These systemic pesticides in the soil or coated on seeds, may be harmful not only to bees, but to soil-dwelling insects, such as grubs, as well as other insects that are exposed to the leaves, fruits, pollen, and nectar of the treated plants.
Stakeholders across the agricultural and wildlife preservation spheres are highly concerned about the threats posed to bee populations and what it could mean for our environment and food systems. Milan Wiercx van Rhijn, from the charity Bees for Development recently summarised the issue perfectly when he expressed that “Agriculture must be regenerative, and we cannot continue destroying the ecosystem on which we depend. Future generations will be shocked that we ever considered using these toxins - we see already the catastrophic decline in insects and biodiversity. If we kill the insects which are the starting blocks in the chain, we'll kill the animals higher up; It's hard to grasp how much of an impact it'll have on us.”
What is being done?
In response, steps are being taken to prevent declines in critical bee populations. In recent years campaigners, conservationists, farmers and charities have collaborated to raise awareness of the plight of bees through events such as Bees’ Needs Week, which takes place this week. This work shines a spotlight on the importance of bees and their declining numbers and has helped capture the public’s imagination. Bees are now some of the most beloved and protected animals in the UK, Europe and globally.
This public awareness has directly led to changes in policy to protect bee populations. For example, in 2018 the European Union and United Kingdom implemented a near total ban on a class of pesticide known as ‘neonicotinoids’, partly due to the risks posed to bees. Before the ban, scientific studies had linked the use of these chemicals to the falling numbers of honeybees, wild bees and other pollinators.
What can replace conventional pesticides?
Now we understand more about bees and the effects of certain chemistry, application practices can be designed to avoid key foraging times, for example, by only spraying in early mornings and evenings when foragers are less likely to be active or by avoiding known harmful chemistries altogether.
However, this alone won’t be enough. As greater numbers of pesticide active ingredients are restricted or banned, farmers need new alternatives to protect their crops without harming bees. This requires a move away from synthetic, prophylactic and broad-spectrum products towards more targeted, natural/plant-based products which bees may encounter naturally in the wild. The obvious solution is biopesticides.
How do Eden’s products fit in?
Eden’s biopesticides provide long term, sustainable solutions which benefit farmers, consumers and regulators, but pose less risk to bees because the active ingredients are all widely found in plants and nature and have natural degradation pathways. As part of the EU registration of its products Eden has to demonstrate that the products have no adverse effect on the environment and non-target organisms, including bees.
The active ingredients used in Eden’s products, geraniol, thymol and eugenol, belong to a group of compounds called terpenes which form part of plants’ natural defence systems. Terpenes are found in essential oils and herbs such as thyme, clove, cinnamon and many others. These same essential oils have been consumed directly for centuries and are still used in abundance today in food and consumer goods. Crucially, they are naturally-derived and are therefore substances which bees are naturally exposed to and occur widely in their habitats. In fact, thymol itself is commonly used to treat mites that affect bees, and geraniol is produced by bees as a means of signalling.
Harnessing the power of nature to support sustainable food production and protect our food crops whilst having minimal negative impacts on nature is at the core of Eden’s mission. By developing products based on compounds found abundantly in nature, Eden can help to provide farmers with the tools to protect their crops sustainably, comply with regulations and minimise the impact on precious pollinator species.
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