Phyllis Court Garden Club

THE Phyllis Court Garden Club hosted a talk given by Dave Goulson, a professor of biology at the University of Sussex.

He founded the Bumblebee Conservation Trust and has written many books and papers on bees and insects and how their survival is linked to our own.

Prof Goulson has spent his lifetime studying insects and bees in particular.

Some of the interesting facts he told the audience included the origins of insects. Long before birds and mammals, about 480 million years ago, insects evolved. About 120 million years ago bees evolved from wasps as basically vegetarian wasps feeding on pollen rather than prey.

At present we have 270 species of bees in the UK but some, like the shrill carder bee, will not exist in this country in about 10 years.

The majority of bee species in Britain are solitary bees, as opposed to honey bees that live in colonies of up to 80,000 workers supporting one queen.

Prof Goulson’s studies have concentrated on bumblebees and he shared some remarkable facts about them.

They evolved about 30 million years ago near the Himalayas. They are the only warm-blooded insect and are most commonly found in temperate areas. They maintain their body temperature by shivering.

They flap their wings about 200 times a second, which means they need high-energy food. A bumblebee with a full stomach has only 40 minutes to find its next meal otherwise it won’t survive, so having a good supply of pollen is vital for its survival.

We were told to look out in late March for the first solitary bees on the wing. having emerged from six to eight months of hibernation.

They will be looking for food and early plants like lungwort and pussy willow are both important food sources. The observant bee watcher will notice them looking for holes in the ground to make their nests.

Have you ever watched a bee hovering near a flower? What they are actually doing is trying to smell if another bee has already taken the pollen — a whiff of another bee means they move on to find a richer food source in the next blossom.

The number of insects, especially bees and other pollinators, is falling rapidly and, Prof Goulson told us, they desperately need our help to survive.

Since the last war 97 per cent of the UK’s wildflower meadows, which were a major food source for many insects, have been destroyed.

Some farmers are trying to incorporate wildlife areas on their land but there’s not nearly enough to sustain our pollinators.

However, there are 22 million private gardens in the UK where wildlife gardening could make all the difference.

Prof Goulson said one thing we could, or even should, do is turn our villages, towns and cities into a network of reserves. Councils should be encouraged to not over-mow the verges to give nature a chance.

By planting the right sort of flowering plants in our gardens we can do a lot to help insect populations.

The advice is for more “cottage-type” flowers — perennials and native plants are the best.

Having fruit trees in our gardens (even small varieties) would help and why don’t we grow them in our parks, asked Prof Goulson.

A five-year study of best plants for pollinators was carried out at a nursery in South Oxfordshire.

This showed that the best plants for a variety of pollinators are sneezewort (Helenium autumnale), catmint, geranium rozanne (cranesbill), wild marjoram, borage, viper’s bugloss and many more.

Dandelions are very important for the early queens to feed on, as are thistles and ragwort. Another important food source is tree blossom, especially fruit, lime, laburnum and other trees that need pollination to fruit.

We saw photographs of people in south-west China pollinating apple and pear trees by hand as overuse of pesticides has all but exterminated bees of all types in the region.

Even in this country poor pollination has impacted fruit farmers — the warning signs are out there. Prof Goulson said it was time to change our mindset — instead of weeds being a blight, welcome them as wildflowers.

An amazing amount of flowers will grow in a lawn given a chance. Anyone who took part in No Mow May can vouch for that as well as the pleasure of watching bees, hoverflies and butterflies feeding on the flowers.

The worst things of all are pesticides and herbicides, which are the death knell for our insect population and bad news for human health too (the World Health Organisation declared glyphosate a carcinogen in 2015).

In 2018, France banned the use of pesticides in all cities and towns unless you are a farmer. If France can manage without these toxic chemicals, why can’t we, asked Prof Goulson.

To finish, he gave the example of blackfly on the beans in his own garden. Instead of trying to get rid of them, he leaves them and soon ladybird larvae eat them, joined by lacewing larvae and tiny black parasitoid wasps, hoverfly larvae and soldier beetles. Night-time earwigs will share the feast. The beans survive and the aphids provide food for many useful insects and the occasional bird. That is nature as it should be.

I would like to thank the garden club for allowing me to attend this most interesting and important talk.

Diana Barnett