Bee Hotels Can Help Native Pollinators Recover in the Wake of Climate-Fueled Wildfires: Study

Wild pollinator populations are declining all over the world, with increasingly severe climate change-fueled wildfires threatening their survival. These intense wildfires are also putting long-term ecosystem health and biodiversity at risk.

Bee hotels are artificial nesting structures that have been specially designed to house cavity-nesting species. Often placed in backyards or gardens, they provide safe havens and nurseries for essential pollinators.

New research led by conservationist Dr. Kit Prendergast, a native bee scientist with University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ), has found that bee hotels can play an essential role in helping native bee populations recover from wildfires.

“While there has been much attention on post-bushfire flora recovery, there has been virtually no investment into the recovery of the pollinators of flora, which are vital for flowering plant restoration and the sustainability of plant populations,” Prendergast said in a press release from UniSQ. “Native bees are often the key pollinators of wildflowers, so finding a practical way to support their recolonisation and recovery after bushfires is crucial.”

The study demonstrates that bee hotels have the ability to support the establishment and recolonization of populations of cavity-nesting bees in the wake of wildfires.

Prendergast and her father Stephen constructed 1,000 bee hotels — half made from wooden blocks drilled with nesting holes, the other half built using PVC piping and bamboo.

The Prendergast team installed the bee hotels at five sites throughout Western Australia’s Jarrah forests — one of many regions that was devastated during the 2019 to 2020 bushfire season.

“Wildfires are increasing in prevalence and intensity under anthropogenic climate change and pose threats to plant-pollinator communities. Much of the Australian landscape is fire-prone, and whilst fire has been part of some habitat types, the extent and nature of recent fires are unprecedented,” the authors of the study wrote.

The Prendergasts conducted surveys over seven months to monitor the activity of native bees, as well as honey bees — their main competitor — at flowering plants close to the bee hotels and three fire-impacted control sites with no hotels.

“The recovery effort was a success – every bee hotel was used, with native bees occupying more than 800 nests in total,” Prendergast said. “We also recorded significantly higher bee activity at the hotel sites compared to the control sites. This offers clear proof that properly designed bee hotels can support natural recolonisation and accelerate population recovery.”

The researchers observed fewer native bees “checking in” to bee hotels or foraging in areas that had higher honey bee activity.

“This is no surprise given honey bees can outcompete native bees for essential resources like nectar and pollen, especially in post-fire areas where there is a shortage of food,” Prendergast explained. “We recommend excluding beekeeping from fire-affected areas to give native bees a chance to recolonise and persist in post-fire environments.”

Prendergast also warned against the relocation of native bees into areas that have been affected by wildfires, warning this could lead to competition with local bees and risk killing the native bees if there aren’t enough resources.

The study, “Bee Hotels as a Tool for Post-Fire Recovery of Cavity-Nesting Native Bees,” was co-authored by Prendergast and Dr. Rachele Wilson, a research fellow at Griffith University, and published in the journal Insects.

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“Our study is the first to trial bee hotels as a post-fire recovery option. Nesting habitat is a vital part of the equation for recovering pollinators, for even if they can move into fire-affected landscapes and forage on flowering regrowth, they will be unable to establish without nesting resources,” the authors wrote in the study.