Help for native wild bees
Environmental Agency of the City of Chemnitz informs
For some years now, there has been a dramatic decline in many wild bee species in Germany. Around half of the more than 560 wild bee species are threatened with extinction. The reasons for this include frequently mown meadows and pastures, monotonous agricultural landscapes and the use of pesticides. A fundamental change in land management is necessary to counteract the extinction of wild bees.
Even every home and garden owner can help wild bees with simple means.
Nesting aids for wild bees, so-called "insect hotels", offer children in particular the opportunity to experience the fascinating life of wild bees up close.
Three quarters of native wild bee species nest in the ground. They cannot use the artificially created nesting aids. For these species, you can create open sandy areas, embankments and natural stone walls or maintain ungravelled paths and rotten dead wood in the garden.
In addition, native wild bees suffer more from the loss of food plants. Mown meadows with few flowers, exotic ornamental plants and tidy gardens cause wild bees to starve. To help protect these busy pollinators, it is therefore important to provide the right food plants. These are often the very simple wild flowers, such as bluebells, daisies, chicory or camomile, which are familiar from the roadside. Seed mixtures from local shops, on the other hand, are often unsuitable for wild bees because they often contain foreign plant species with double flowers that are worthless as a food source.
When buying nesting aids on the internet, cocoons of mason bees are often offered as "first colonisers". However, it should be noted that wild bees are a specially protected species. They may only be released with a special licence from the Lower Nature Conservation Authority. Breeding, selling and mailing are unnatural interventions in the life of wild bees. Bee diseases can be spread through breeding and trade. The mason bees that are bred often come from federal states with a milder climate and are not adapted to the harsh weather conditions of the foothills of the Ore Mountains. In addition, the natural balance of the native bee fauna is disturbed. The mason bee species on offer occur here in sufficient numbers and do not need to be artificially colonised. They can even lead to the displacement of rare, native species.
Therefore, please ensure that no mason bee cocoons are purchased. If the right nesting opportunities and a variety of food plants are available, wild bees will come to the garden or balcony all by themselves. And then the joy of having your own wild bee population is much greater and more beautiful.