Paris – France is to sow nectar-bearing flowers on the sides of roads in an experiment aimed at helping the honey bee, hit by an alarming worldwide decline, the ministry of sustainable development said on Tuesday.
In hopes of better understanding why bee populations are in decline, scientists are attaching microchips to bees to monitor their movements. The tiny device is glued to the back of the bees works with equipment installed at the entrance of their hives to record different data.
For five years they have wreaked havoc in the fields of south-western France, scaring locals with their venomous stings and ravaging the bee population to feed their rapacious appetites. Now, according to French beekeepers, Asian predatory hornets have been sighted in Paris for the first time, raising the prospect of a nationwide invasion which entomologists fear could eventually reach Britain.
Common sense says it is better to keep hives of stinging insects in the countryside, away from city centers packed with people. Yet on storied rooftops and public gardens in the urban jungle of Paris, the bee business is thriving.
There are more than 300 known colonies in the French capital, up from about 250 five years ago, according to the National Beekeepers’ Association. Hives have appeared on the roof of the Opéra Garnier, on balconies and in parks.
A study by scientists from the Nairobi-headquartered international research centre icipe, in collaboration with the French Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) has established that bees have the potential to mediate the escape of transgenes (genetically engineered material) from crops to their wild relatives over several kilometres.
Swarms of giant hornets renowned for their vicious stings and skill at massacring honeybees have settled in France. And there are now so many of the insects that entomologists fear it will just be a matter of time before they cross to Britain.
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