Bees are dying in the UK for several reasons at once. Habitat loss, pesticides, disease, and a changing climate all play a part. No single cause explains it. Together they put real pressure on bees.
Habitat destruction
Bees need flowers, and flowers need space. The UK has lost 97% of its flower-rich meadows since the 1930s. Field margins have been ploughed up. Towns have spread over green space. With fewer flowers, bees have less to eat and fewer places to nest.
Pesticides
Neonicotinoids are a group of pesticides that harm bees even at low doses. They affect a bee’s ability to navigate, feed, and breed. A bee that cannot find its way home cannot bring food back. The UK and EU have restricted these chemicals, though their use has a long and disputed history.
Disease and parasites
The Varroa destructor mite is one of the biggest threats to honeybees. It feeds on bees and spreads viruses through the colony. Nosema ceranae is a gut parasite that weakens bees from the inside. American Foulbrood, a bacterial disease, can wipe out a whole hive. These spread fastest where bees are already stressed.
Climate change
Warmer, less stable seasons throw bees out of step with flowers. A bee may emerge before its food plants bloom, or after they have faded. Extreme weather, from heatwaves to wet summers, makes foraging harder. The timing that bees rely on is breaking down.
Monoculture farming
Fields of a single crop offer a brief glut of food, then nothing. Wildflowers that once grew between crops have gone. A landscape of one plant is a desert for bees once that plant stops flowering.
Why it matters
Bees pollinate around 70 of the crops grown in the UK. Their work is worth about 691 million pounds a year. About 80% of UK wildflowers rely on insect pollination. Fewer bees mean less food, fewer wildflowers, and a poorer landscape for everything that depends on them.
What you can do
Start with planting for bees and dropping pesticides from your garden. In towns, here is helping bees in towns and cities. For the full picture of the decline, read are bees in decline in the UK. And keep a bee revival kit to hand. Here is what to do if you find a struggling bee.