Bee expert Robin Dean is warning against usage of bee attractants in horticultural crops, as honeybee populations continue to decline at an alarming rate.

“Attractants are sometimes sugary sprays or pheromone-based products sprayed onto a crop to make it more attractive to honeybees,” said Dean, a commercial beekeeper who works with CJ Wildlife. “The research shows very limited results and even the most robust studies show limited impact, with potentially an increased visitation rate, but not necessarily increased pollen transfer between compatible varieties.

“Another big snag with attractants is they are designed for honeybees and do nothing for solitary bees, ignoring the major contribution that solitary bee species make to effective pollination in commercial crops. Claire Kremen, arguably the world’s top pollination biologist currently working in the US, has shown beyond a shadow of a doubt that wild and honey bees working in tandem have a dramatic effect on the effective transfer of pollen between flowers.”

The track record of attractants has been dogged with inconsistencies and mixed results, said Dean. “The latest product to come onto the UK market, Pollinus, was granted market approval based on the product’s performance in almonds and cantaloupe melons - both crops not grown commercially in the UK. Attractants are not a panacea for pollination problems and most researchers would suggest that a chemical solution is not a good investment to boost optimum pollination provision, but may have some value in very, very limited applications,” he said. “Growers need to balance the cost of the chemical and application against traditional methods of optimising pollination.”

UK growers could spend their money better and more wisely using “innovative orchard practice and a comprehensive programme to engage with pollination service suppliers”, and looking at “methods to optimise orchard design”.

“Remember your bee farmer is a professional, and understands bee biology and the hive mind, and has a number of tools at his disposal to manipulate the honeybee colony without any long-term damage to the bees. Keeping honeybees in the orchard all year round isn’t going to do much for your pollination service, as the bees will forage in the local environment before the orchard blooms, and will take time to change to the target crop. Bees imported into the orchard when there is around five per cent of flower on the trees will readily forage into the orchard crop, particularly with apples, as the nectar has relatively high sugars, and the bees do not have to ‘forget’ another local high yield crop,” added Dean.

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