Bumblebees affected by 2018 extreme UK weather, experts say

Hot summer favoured some rare bees but the spring freeze led to a poor year for 24 species

Press Association

Wed 29 May 2019 06.00 BST

Last year’s weather extremes, from snowstorms to drought, led to a tough year for many of the UK’s bumblebees, conservationists have said.

But several rare species which emerge late and love hot conditions had a very good year, a report from the Bumblebee Conservation Trust reveals.

Data collected by volunteers through the spring and summer showed that freezing conditions late February and early March, as the country was hit by the “beast from the east”, delayed the start of the 2018 bumblebee season.

Most of the 24 species of UK bumblebee got off to a slow start and only reached normal numbers in July. Experts said that suggested the queen bees were late out of hibernation and slow to produce large numbers of workers.

The hot, dry, summer caused further problems for the insects, with many species declining more quickly than normal as the year progressed and the heatwave wilted and parched flowers, reducing the amount of food for them.

The early bumblebee had its worst year since 2012 when near constant rain occurred, while species commonly seen in people’s gardens such as the garden, buff-tailed, heath and white-tailed bumblebees, all had poor years.

Last year was the worst for the number of individuals per species recorded since the washout weather in 2012, and conservationists are concerned that that could have a knock-on effect for 2019 numbers. That is because the heatwave could have affected the number of queens which made it into hibernation last winter.

The country’s bumblebees could face long-term problems from the more frequent heatwaves that the UK is likely to experience with climate change, the wildlife organisation warns.

Continued