2023-10-07 05:00:00
Small bee hives on a road in Coirs Atr
The andrena, a very pollinating species, has hatched throughout the A Corua region. But there are those who destroy their hives by confusing it with velutina
07 oct 2023 . Updated at 05:00 a.m.
With the autumn, small craters have opened again on roads and gardens in the region. Under these minitunnels are andrena bees, a species that serves as an important counterweight to this long dictatorship of the velutinas. Because these small insects are oligolactic, that is, They collect pollen from various plant speciesand thus enhance a basic gesture for the development of life such as pollination, in clear decline since the invasion of Asian wasps.
However, its presence has already raised alarms due to fear of possible bites. Their location is delicate, because they are placed in places where it is difficult not to step on them. The andrenas dig in clay soilsin soil of little resistance, or very close to the roots of trees to take advantage of the holes it generates.
This same week, the Bilbao City Council has closed access to a city park due to the presence of these bees, although the signs placed in the area already warn that it is not an aggressive species. They are also known as mining bees.
What’s under those little holes? The cavities can reach a depth of 20 centimeters. In them, the bees accumulate food for future offspring, which will emerge as females or drones. It won’t take long for the craters to disappear. They are more or less rapid processes that should not be interrupted due to the great pollination work of this species, with very to this for those functions.
But the fear of velutinas and the lack of knowledge about other types of bees or wasps mean that they are all put in the same bag. Experts in removing Asian nests are receiving calls warning about litter in the Coruesa region, which has already invaded school environments, private properties or roads. And there are scenes that accentuate the confusion. Sometimes they see a velutina in front of one of these holes, people then think that it is trying to enter, that it is hiding there, but what it does is wait for the bee to come out to kill it.explains Lolo Andrade, an expert in this class of insects. In fact, the scientific journal Nature has just published an article in which it demonstrates that the presence of Asian wasps reduces other pollinator colonies (in this study, from the universities of Santiago, Vigo and Exeter, the interaction of the velutina with the bumblebee was analyzed).
Enemies of heat
There are more elements that are reducing the activity of the andrenas, according to the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC). They are especially vulnerable to heat, the national institution indicates. The pollinating importance of this species becomes null or very low in species that flower at the end of spring or during the summer, they add after work carried out between 1997 and 2022. The plants on which they forage do not exceed a temperature of 21 degrees. and if the bee itself rises above 31, it needs to cool down, so it modifies its behavior.
In this way, climate change, which is already manifesting itself with a consecutive chain of heat waves and high temperatures in autumn and spring, harms this species that saves the environment, while enhancing the destructive action of the velutinas, which have found their comfort zone with the constant rise in thermometers.
Filed in: Velutina Sustainability
#Blessed #plague #mining #bees