World Bee Day: Animal Welfare Austria gives tips to help bees

"There are many ways in which each individual can make a contribution."

World Bee Day is celebrated worldwide on May 20, a day that highlights the importance of bees for our environment and our food production. Despite their immense importance, bee populations around the world are under threat. Habitat loss, the use of pesticides and climate change are just some of the challenges facing bees. For this reason, Tierschutz Austria is now providing tips on how everyone can help to promote the protection of these vital insects.

1. Sowing bee pasture: Care should be taken to ensure that the seeds are of high quality. Many products consist mainly of lawn seeds and few flower seeds.
2. Plant bee-friendly plants: Plant bee-friendly flowers and plants in your garden or on your balcony. These include marigold, tulip, daisy, lavender, sainfoin, phacelia, borage, thyme, buckwheat, sunflower, mallow, marigold, fennel, rosemary, dill, parsnip, coriander and more.
3. Avoid pesticides: Avoid using pesticides in your garden. These can damage and kill bees and thus endanger their populations.
4. Build an insect hotel: To provide a nesting place for bees in your own garden, yard or balcony, simply create a wooden frame and insert pieces of wood into which holes have been drilled. Then alternately fill in the holes with small twigs and/or bamboo sticks. Don't forget that the interior should be replaced every year.
5. Provide a bee drinking trough: A shallow bowl of clean water filled with stones is best so that the surface of the water is broken. The bees land on the stones and cannot drown. Bees like to share information, so if the water source is kept constant, local pollinators will come to visit you.
6. Let the grass grow: Don't mow your lawn too often (once or twice a year) to allow bee-attractive plants such as clover, daisies and dandelions to flower. If a mowed lawn is important to you, you can also leave out small areas where the plants can grow.
7. Support local beekeepers: Support local beekeepers by buying their honey.

"On World Bee Day, we would like to call on the public to take action and take measures to protect bees. There are many ways in which each individual can make a contribution. However, we would also like to call on the government to take more measures to protect bees. This includes promoting organic farming methods, reducing the use of pesticides and creating habitats where bees can settle," explains MMag. Dr. Madeleine Petrovic, President of the Vienna Animal Welfare Association.