French wildlife and beekeeping

  From January 1, 2019 , only plant protection and other gardening products of natural origin have been available to home gardeners in France . This was originally to have been from Jan 2022 but was brought forward as part of the French move towards reducing the use of products that are harmful to both humans and the wider environment. This follows the banning in 2017 of the use of Glyphosate, (Roundup), and other synthetic pesticides in public spaces including public roads, parks and cemeteries. (The term Pesticides is used generically these days to cover all “cides”, herbicide, fungicide, insecticide etc. to avoid laborious repetition ).      The use of synthetic pesticides continues to be permitted for farmers and professionals registered to work in the gardening business.   Synthetic pesticides are “a substance that is formulated or manufactured by a chemical process or by a process that chemically changes a substance extracted from naturally occurri...

I know it is stating the obvious but every year is different in the natural world and no two years can be the same, however this is becoming increasingly exaggerated. Habitat loss, agricultural methods and climate change along with other factors are causing rapid major changes for our native species requiring them to adapt or perhaps in some cases disappear completely. For some species this is creating opportunities and they have expanding populations that are sometimes associated with an expansion in their range. However for most species there are accelerating declines and this in turn leads to changes of behaviour as species attempt to adapt. Where I live most insect species have been in overall decline for the last 25 years and this year has been abysmal for them but I want to talk specifically about hornets.  Following the usual slow start as nests were established and populations grew I started to see a gradual increase in both Asian and European hornets in t...

The other day a chap on a French Beekeeping Face book group posted a photo of a beetle trying to get into one of his hives.    His initial reaction having “Googled” was that it may have been a Large hive beetle, Oplostomus fuligineus , a species that is found in Africa  and although this has not yet been recorded in France  we can’t be sure where anything is going to turn up these days. New non native species seem to arrive on almost a weekly basis in France and the Small hive beetle, Aethina tumida , another non native, has been found in Italy but as of this moment hasn’t reached France . Anyway it was clearly a Chafer, that much was indisputable but not a Large hive beetle. I was sure, (ha,ha,ha), at first that it was dark Rose Chafer beetle due to its general appearance and size, (close to 2cm). However I couldn’t find any evidence of Rose Chafers trying to enter hives and although they are plentiful at our place, (Rose chafers and hives), I have never see...

I have come across plenty of honeybee colonies that have set up home in the roofs of houses, and when necessary, have even been known to remove them when the roof was about to be renovated and it would have been too dangerous for the roofers to work. Otherwise I always encourage people to leave them alone as they present no problems for the homeowners and should be seen as a privilege in the same way as we do when swallows, house martins, wrens and other birds choose to share our property. I have also seen honeybees nest in all manner of other places, old milk churns, compost bins, in windows and so on, but yesterday, one way or another, was a bonus day, (I’m easily pleased). An acquaintance called and asked if I would mind taking a look at what was happening at their house where, for a few days, they had seen activity under the eaves on one corner of their house and weren’t sure if it was bees or wasps. I arrived there at around 10am and really there wasn’t much to see,...

France Becomes The First Country To Ban All Five Pesticides Linked To Bee Deaths. Most of us will have seen this or similarly worded headlines on a myriad of mainstream media sites, blogs, alternative information sites, and sites that are simply clickbait for advertising revenue. Many of these so-called articles are full of sensational, erroneous statements and speculations that have no factual or scientific foundation whatsoever. Large numbers of people will have liked, shared, and commented on these pages without any idea of what the reality is or giving it any real thought.   Most of us do this at some time or another on social media because to do otherwise would be too time-consuming. So what actually is the reality? Yes, France has banned the use of five types of neonicotinoid insecticides that by definition have been shown to cause harm to insects.   This is two more than the EU has banned, although countries frequently derogate from the ban in certai...

Chateau bees. It’s not unusual to get called out to bee swarms and colonies between the windows and shutters of French houses. After all, it's an ideal space if the shutters are closed.   The other day I was called to one in a Chateau, all very straightforward, with a nice-sized window for the Ruchette, (small hive box). Victoria, the woman from the Chateau, wondered if they had come from the bees in the large section of Lime tree trunk from the tree that they had cut down in the late autumn.   Immediately she had my attention, and so the story unfolded. It seems the tree had to be cut down as it had become dangerous, having split in a storm. They insisted that the section with the bees in it be cut out in one large piece, and this was later moved to a suitable location in the grounds, with the open ends covered up to provide protection but with enough gaps for the bees to come and go. Walking down to where it was, I was impressed by the size of it and although it wa...

As soon as we start to take a look at either Hedgerows or Dry stone walls it soon becomes clear that in France as in many parts of the UK it’s difficult to talk about one without the other. Although there have been what could loosely be called hedgerows to some extent in France since before Roman times they really started to come into their own in the 16 th and 17 th centuries as the available land not already owned by the nobility or the Church was eagerly snapped up by the wealthy middle classes, the bourgeoisie urbaine. They used hedgerows to define their boundaries, to protect their crops and to prevent other farmers from grazing their land. Apparently hedge laying, (plessage), was widely used throughout France but has disappeared without a trace in many regions since the 1960’s and I have yet to see an example or a remnant in our region.  From the end of the 19 th century and into the first half of the 20 th century the industrialisation of agriculture started to c...

Up to 25mm in length this huge leafcutter bee is a relatively new arrival in France that is rapidly and literally making itself at home and is nicknamed the Squatter bee for reasons that will become apparent.  First observations of this bee in France were made in 2008 in Allauch, north of Marseille. Since this date they have spread a long way and in the space of a few years have conquered a territory that includes all the southern half of the country!  The main concentrations not surprisingly follow the Rhone valley as far as Macon in the north to the Mediterranean in the south spreading West as far as Spain and East into Italy , Switzerland and Germany becoming relatively commonplace in gardens south of Lyon . Map source - VigieNature It is thought to have first arrived in a shipment of timber into the port of Marseille from the USA where the species had been introduced at an earlier date, (first observed in 1994 in North Carolina ). Originally t...

Wax moths of both species Achroia grisella and Galleria mellonella which are   commonly known as Lesser Wax Moth and Greater Wax Moth have one brood per year but this leads to successive generations as they complete their life cycle and the offspring breed. The adult moths live for about a week and are mainly nocturnal. . In both cases the development time between egg and adult hatching is temperature dependent and can vary considerably but can be as little as 45 days with an average daytime temperature of 28 – 30°C  but can take up to 7 or 8 months. Essentially higher temperatures speed up the development. Eggs always hatch in less than 2 weeks and it can be as little as 2 or 3 days.  The larval, (or grub), stage has the most flexible lifespan and generally the longest, anything from about 4 weeks to 6 months and of course as any beekeeper knows beeswax is their food.  Click images to enlarge Photo Wax Moth Both species overwinter in the larv...

8 th September 2018 It’s no exaggeration to say that increasingly the arable lands of France are becoming environmental wastelands as the same crops are grown time and time again, often on the same land with no rotation and an ever-increasing input of chemical fertilisers and use of pesticides. Manure from cattle and goat sheds is often added to the land in a raw form without being composted which greatly reduces its usefulness and in recent years with the growth in industrial poultry farming and egg production, the vast quantities of waste from these processes are often used. Even if we leave aside the manner in which livestock is treated these days the use of the waste in such a manner, whilst it may have apparent short-term gain, leads to imbalances in the soil that is already little more than compacted dust. The main autumn sown crops of barley, wheat and oilseed rape tend to be harvested by the end of July with maize and sunflowers usually harvested in September and O...

Although the vast majority of Mantis species have their homes in tropical and sub-tropical climates France plays host to a dozen species most of which are in the Mediterranean region, some quite rare and only found in the coastal band.  However the one that most people are familiar with, the Praying Mantis Mantis religiosa, can be found throughout all of France and much of continental Europe as far north as Denmark . Without doubt people will be drawn to their two bulbous complex eyes but like many insects they also have three small simple eyes located between them which largely go unnoticed by most people. Although called “simple” they aren’t at all simple. (Human beings have “simple” eyes see link at the end).   Their triangular head has powerful mandibles and can rotate through almost 180° allowing them to remain motionless while looking around.  Their vernacular name comes from the manner in which they hold their spectacular forelegs with hands joined as i...