Over 560 wild bee species live in Germany and many are threatened with extinction. However, we urgently rely on them to pollinate crops and ornamental plants together with honey bees and other insects. Through ecologically conscious gardening, you can help ensure the survival of at least twenty percent of wild bee species. How – you will find out in this article.
How can I attract wild bees to my garden?
To establish wild bees in the garden, create a wildflower meadow, create natural habitats such as breeding tubes in dead wood or old fences and offer nesting boxes made of clay or wood. Diverse feeding and breeding opportunities attract these useful insects.
Profile of the wild bees
- Almost all wild bees, with the exception of bumblebees, are solitary creatures. For this reason they are also known as hermit or solitary bees.
- Some species are only 1.3 millimeters small, while others grow to over 2.5 centimeters.
- Many wild bees live in brood tubes in the ground. Some need nesting aids, which are becoming increasingly rare in our structured green spaces.
- Wild bees can sting. However, they don't even defend their nests and will only sting if you step on them or accidentally push them clumsily when cutting back plants.
How do I make my garden bee-friendly?
It is very easy to create a comfortable home for these animals with sufficient food sources and successfully attract them to your own garden. However, many of our cultivated plants with double flowers do not provide food for wild bees. Therefore, create a colorful flower meadow in spring. You will be amazed at how it starts humming and humming within a very short time.
Create a wildflower meadow:
Simply reserve a corner of the garden for wildflowers and herbs, which provide a richly laid table for the wild bees. Since sowing in the lawn does not work because the flower seeds cannot germinate in the dense greenery, you should proceed as follows:
- Remove grass and weeds completely.
- Wildflowers love poor soil. Mix humus-rich substrate with sand and some gravel and smooth the area with a rake.
- When selecting seeds (€19.00 on Amazon), make sure that they only contain native wild plants.
- Mix the seeds with four times the amount of sand.
- Apply evenly and press down.
- Do not under any circumstances cover the seeds with soil, as wildflowers almost always germinate in light.
If field flowers such as poppies or cornflowers predominate in the first year, this is normal. These are also valuable food for wild bees. From the second year onwards, more wild herbs establish themselves and a natural plant community forms.
Do not mow the wildflower patch all at once, as this would suddenly deprive the wild bees of all their food sources. Use a scythe for this as the grass is too high for the lawnmower.
Creating natural habitats
Provide diverse breeding opportunities. Some species of wild bees create their brood tubes in weathered wood. For this purpose they not only use dead wood, but also old fences or the somewhat neglected boards of a compost heap.
Do not cut dry stems of ornamental plants back to the ground in autumn. Wild bees like to build their nests in the vertical, pithy stalks. Horizontal tubes, such as those often seen in wild bee hotels, are hardly accepted.
Provide suitable nesting boxes made of clay or wood. Clay-jointed walls are also extremely popular. Unfortunately they are rarely found anymore, they fit wonderfully into natural gardens and are suitable, for example, as visually appealing borders.
Tip
Wild bees are happy to accept even a terrace paved with tiles as a habitat, provided the joints are filled with sand and not with grit.