Where are all the bees and butterflies?

[Darker]

I am seeing many fewer than I’d expect, given the hot weather and lots of flowers.

Has anyone else noticed?

I have had lots of bumble bees this year but very few honey bees, butterflies are around, but not abundant. It’s habitat destruction and pollution.

I saw more butterflies in the countryside than in the city. Have had some bees in DMs garden!

I’ve seen loads of bees this year.

In my garden, loving the cat mint and bird bath.

We have lots in our garden. We garden organically and have lots of scruffy wild areas with nettles and other weeds.

Millions of bees here! (South Yorkshire) And lots of butterflies. More than I've seen in a while actually.

They're all in our wild garden along with the hedgehogs, squirrels and foxes ❤️

We have plenty of butterflies, dragon flies, damsel flies and bumble bees. Very few honey bees but I'm training as a beekeeper so hope to have my own hives next year.

Lots of bees in my garden, they love the lavender, salvias and cat mint.

They’ve been flying in and out of my house all day!

They're all in my garden ,loads of them.

They are in my garden, but my garden is attractive to them, providing them food and habitat that has everything they need to thrive.

They must be all be in my garden! Inwas just thinking that there are so many more butterflies in the garden this year than last year.

Seen quite a few of both in our garden.

Our self-managing (ahem) garden has lots of wild areas, and we keep weeds which are decorative or abundant for pollinators. We also have lots of plants which they love, like hebes. We are having a bumper year for butterflies and different bee species.

In my garden. You can literally hear buzzing when you're out there.

I rescued a beautiful peacock butterfly at work today which had got inside too.

I have absolutely loads of bees in my garden, of many different species. I have a pretty large lavender 'hedge', quite a lot of salvia, lots of purple toadflax, foxgloves, a scabiosa 'hedge', hollyhocks plus many others that attract pollinators. I have designed my borders to ensure there are pollinator attracting plants from spring to autumn.

I do get less butterflies at home, but there are thousands up the fields/meadows where I walk my dog... Of different species

Plenty in my garden, I've actually been really pleased with how many pollinators I've seen this year. Millions of hoverflies which are determined to end themselves in my conservatory!

They won't be out in the heat we've had this week though, there are lots early morning and then it's quiet until evening. I just walked past a bumblebee sleeping on my lavender.

We’ve got a huge lavender bush in full flower at the moment that should be humming with bees but there are only a few on it at a time. Seen a couple of butterflies but that’s about it. The grasshoppers are back in the ‘lawn’, though.

I've noticed fewer hoverflies but plenty of bees and butterflies and a stupid number of dragonflies considering there's no water in our garden .....they're on their way to the big pond a few doors away I think.

I garden for wildlife as well, which is why I’ve noticed. I have a small dead hedge and lots of undisturbed corners.

But many of my neighbours have gone for Astro and paving….

The shortage of sightings of honey bees may be related to the weather - bumblebee colonies usually only number 200-300, whereas honeybee colonies are somewhere from 30000-50000 at this time of year and, especially those in hives, are struggling to keep the colonies cool with so many bodies packed together! Huge numbers of them are sitting on the 'alighting boards' at the front of the hives, fanning with their wings, to try and cool the interior to protect the eggs, grubs and pupae inside from cooking. Fewer bees, therefore, out on foraging and nectar/pollen gathering flights.

That's fascinating 👏

In South London today I saw about twenty butterflies on our school run today. There is a lot of Buddleia bushes on the route and they were loving it! The bees will be largely staying in during the heatwave but there were lots out last week.

all the bees are in my garden, we have loads