'Bee hotels' as tools for native pollinator conservation: a premature verdict?

PloS One
J Scott MacIvor, Laurence Packer

Abstract

Society is increasingly concerned with declining wild bee populations. Although most bees nest in the ground, considerable effort has centered on installing 'bee hotels'--also known as nest boxes or trap nests--which artificially aggregate nest sites of above ground nesting bees. Campaigns to 'save the bees' often promote these devices despite the absence of data indicating they have a positive effect. From a survey of almost 600 bee hotels set up over a period of three years in Toronto, Canada, introduced bees nested at 32.9% of sites and represented 24.6% of more than 27,000 total bees and wasps recorded (47.1% of all bees recorded). Native bees were parasitized more than introduced bees and females of introduced bee species provisioned nests with significantly more female larva each year. Native wasps were significantly more abundant than both native and introduced bees and occupied almost 3/4 of all bee hotels each year; further, introduced wasps were the only group to significantly increase in relative abundance year over year. More research is needed to elucidate the potential pitfalls and benefits of using bee hotels in the conservation and population dynamics of wild native bees.

References

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Citations

Apr 14, 2016·Royal Society Open Science·J Scott MacIvor
Jul 4, 2018·Ecology Letters·T M KnightJ A Steets
Dec 30, 2018·Conservation Biology : the Journal of the Society for Conservation Biology·Ania A Majewska, Sonia Altizer
Dec 3, 2016·PloS One·J Scott MacIvor, Laurence Packer
Mar 21, 2019·Ecological Applications : a Publication of the Ecological Society of America·Kimberly M BallareShalene Jha
Jun 19, 2019·PeerJ·Veronica R WignallFrancis L W Ratnieks
May 12, 2019·British Dental Journal·Brett DuaneGavin Ballantyne
Nov 1, 2020·Scientific Reports·Kathryn A LeCroyT'ai H Roulston
Aug 8, 2018·The Science of the Total Environment·Marine LevéCarmen Bessa-Gomes
Feb 5, 2021·Current Opinion in Insect Science·Laura RussoJames Scott MacIvor
May 10, 2021·Environmental Pollution·Eric M PetersonPhilip N Smith
Jun 1, 2021·Conservation Biology : the Journal of the Society for Conservation Biology·Katherine J Turo, Mary M Gardiner
Jul 22, 2021·Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society·Guillaume GhisbainDenis Michez
Aug 10, 2021·Ecology and Evolution·Marco MorettiJ Scott MacIvor

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