Eucalypts and bottlebrushes work best for bee hotels

Native Australian flowering plants can help attract native species of bees to urban areas, research from Curtin University has discovered.

The study analysed 14 sites in metropolitan Perth, that included both bushland and home gardens and found that both native bee species and European honeybees preferred to feed from native flora rather than introduced species.

The most popular native species among bees were from the Myrtaceeae family including eucalypts, bottlebrush and melaleucas and Fabaceae – native pea plants. The 10 most visited plant species were visited by 70-80 per cent of the native bees observed during the study.

“The research shows how important native flowers are in supporting native bee and even honeybee populations in urban areas. It also highlights the need for sustainable management of honeybee numbers, as high honeybee populations can deprive native bees of their preferred resources,” the study’s lead researcher Dr Kit Prendergast said.

A separate recently published study explored the use of bee hotels as nesting habitats for several bee species in urban areas, which has not been extensively studied previously. The researchers installed 120 wooden bee hotels across the 14 study sites in Perth, with varying sized nesting holes. The two-year study attracted 24 native bee species and demonstrated that native species preferred smaller diameter holes over larger ones.

“Bee hotels in bushland remnants were more likely to be occupied than those in gardens, indicating that native bee populations were more abundant in this natural habitat. Surprisingly, greater flower diversity reduced bee hotel occupancy, likely due to the specialised diets of most native bees. On the other hand, a higher proportion of native flowers near bee hotels enhanced bee reproductive success,” Dr Prendergast said.

The studies reinforce the importance of protecting native bushland in urban areas to provide habitat for native bee species so they can carry out their essential ecosystem service of pollination.

The studies are published in Pacific Conservation Biology and Urban Ecosystems, and are titled Native flora receive more visits than exotics from bees, especially native bees, in an urbanised biodiversity hotspotand Checking in at bee hotels: trap-nesting occupancy and fitness of cavity-nesting bees in an urbanised biodiversity hotspot