News: May 2004

Scottish gardeners find themselves in a unique position to help save some of the more threatened bumblebees in the UK.

Scottish Natural Heritage has produced a booklet with details of how farmers, crofters, foresters and gardeners can do their bit to halt the decline in our native bumblebees. Many species of bumblebees have declined dramatically over the past 50 years and several of these are more commonly found in Scotland, including the moss carder bee (Bombus muscorum), the bilberry bumblebee (Bombus monticola) and the great yellow bumblebee (Bombus distinguendus). Scottish gardeners are more likely to come across these species than gardeners elsewhere in Britain and, by adopting the bumblebee-friendly practices outlined in the leaflet, are in a good position to help them.

BBC. 2004. Nature body gets busy saving bees. Viewed on the web at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3678907.stm on May 3rd 2004.