#EarnYourStripes

Plant a seasonal flower or plant

Nectar-rich flowers and plants provide an important source of pollen for solitary bees, who are busy pollinating our crops and ensuring that plant communities are healthy.

Earn Your Stripes by planting a seasonal pollinator friendly plant in your garden, hanging basket or outdoor plant pot.  Visit our Gardening for Pollinators web pages for lots of handy hints and tips.

Leave an exposed area of soil

Roughly 70% of solitary bees are called mining bees and nest in underground burrows up to 60cm deep. These burrows are often marked by small mounds of excavated soil.

Do your bit for the bees by leaving an area of your lawn bare, or building a mound of sandy soil in a border or plant pot.

Buy or build a bee hotel

Cavity nesting bees, such as Red Mason Bees and leafcutter bees, require dry hollow tubes to lay their young.

You can either buy a bee house or make your very own out of recycled materials.

Check out our Gardening for Bugs webpages for lots of great ideas and to find out more!

Grow a wildflower patch

Although cultivated flower beds and baskets look lovely to humans, solitary bees much prefer long grass, wildflowers and nectar-rich dandelions.

Allow a metre square patch of your garden to grow wild, sprinkling it with native wildflower seeds.

Once done, don’t forget to add your patch to our B-Lines map; help us grow the insect super highway!

Spread the word

Talk about solitary bees in your local community group or with some friends over coffee.

Check out our website or suggested resources to learn more about solitary bees and share what you’ve learned on your socials.

Don’t forget to tag us @SolitaryBeeWeek #SolitaryBeeWeek so we can reshare too!

Record a solitary bee

Get involved with a recording scheme, such as UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme (PoMS), BWARS, or Bumblebee Conservation Trust’s BeeWalk scheme and record a solitary bee in your garden or local park.

By taking part, you will be helping experts build their understanding of how solitary bees are coping with threats including habitat loss, pesticides and climate change.

Join a Buglife Event

Want to know more about solitary bees and the work taking place across the UK to help them?

Join a Buglife event, either virtually or in person, and discover more!  Find out about events in your area