Want to help nature by being
just a little bit lazy?
A campaign to give your mower a rest and let dandelions bloom for a short few weeks to help feed bees this Spring. They are our wild bees’ most favourite food, and are especially important in Spring when little else is available.
Help halt the bee decline.
Bee & Dandelion Facts
One third of Ireland’s 98 wild bee species are threatened with extinction. Despite the decline of Ireland’s bees, there are no protected bee species here.
Three bee species have become extinct in Ireland within the past 80 years. Bee populations in Ireland are decreasing at a rate above the global average.
We need pollinators. Out of the 100 crop species which provide 90% of food worldwide, 71 are bee-pollinated. That’s a lot!
Contrary to popular belief, our 98 species of wild bees are responsible for most pollination here in Ireland, rather than our 1 species of honeybee.
In fact, dandelions are our wild bees’ most favourite food, based on sightings reported to the National Biodiversity Data Centre in 2019.
Dandelions offer vital sustenance to emerging bees each spring. This is because they bloom earlier than the majority of spring flowers.
Take a little time off
from mowing this Spring!
It is not overstressing the point to say that the dandelion is the most important food plant for our insects in Spring.
If we had more dandelions in Ireland we would have more pollinators.
Ireland’s National Biodiversity Data Centre.
dandelion = biodiversity!
You cannot overstate the importance of dandelions in Spring. If you would like to do
more to help our pollinator, all year round, visit the link below.
This campaign is in memory of
Dermot Cunningham,
Director and co-founder of the Clean Technology Centre at
Cork Institute of Technology, who stood up for a more
sustainable world.