As if the climate change and unabated hunting wasn’t suffice to wipe out wildlife, now English wet summer is taking its toll on bumblebees. The prolonged wet conditions make bumblebees’ nest watery, they are forced to live outside their habitat and on most of the occasions these bumblebees are unable to survive. Slowly these bumblebees are succumbing to inclement weather conditions.
The greatest threat is for the great yellow bumblebee that is labeled as the UK’s rarest bumblebee and moss carder, which nests in mossy tussocks.
Earlier this year, sensing the threat for bumblebees, Bumblebee Conservation Trust had launched a national garden watch and a drive to boost the insect’s numbers.
However the data collected so far from the public on bumblebee sightings is still under compilation.
The bad weather conditions also add on dramatic effect especially for ground nesting bees as it saturated.
Ben Darvill from Bumblebee Conservation Trust believes that although the species will not be completely wiped out, but populations will suffer.
The descending number of bumblebees may also have a knock-on effect on the pollination of crops and flowers.
The trust is encouraging people to plant wild flowers in their gardens, keep a watch on bumblebees and send in their observations. Bumblebees are generally sighted until autumn, but because of global warming the sightings may extend to winter too.
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Source: BBC