Better-B's third newsletter is now available on our website. 

Learn more about Vespa velutina and Aethina tumida, which present a growing threat to bees, biodiversity and beyond. These species, once absent in Europe, cause significant harm when they invade new areas. The Better-B project focusses on reducing stress on honey bees, developing new sustainable strategies to combat these insects in apiaries. For Vespa velutina, we tested five trap and attractant combinations in 12 apiaries across Italy and Spain. For Aethina tumida, we tested three types of traps in the Calabria region of Italy. Beekeepers actively participated by monitoring the traps in autumn 2024.

This newsletter is available in 7 languages: Dutch, English, French, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Romanian. 

Enjoy reading!

Recording the different pollinating insects as a function of time and location will provide an overview of the quantities of food sources available and the nesting opportunities for bumblebees, solitary bees, hoverflies and other insects, and will therefore help us to understand the extent to which the environment is favourable to pollinating insects.

The first results of our citizen science study on pollinator food sharing, collected via beeplants.eu in 2024, are now available on the Better-B website. The short and long versions of this annual report can be found on the Learning platform (under citizen science) and on the beeplants.eu citizen science webpage. 

We are pleased to inform you all that the presentations and photos of the Better-B public event held on 14 Nov 2024 in Wageningen are now available on our dedicated webpage. Enjoy browsing!

Our next Better-B public event is quickly approaching (14 Nov 2024, Wageningen and online) and the final agenda is now available on our dedicated webpage. 

Join us for this event, if you would like to learn more about Darwinian selection, our beeplant catalogue and hive designs for thermoregulation. For those joining us in person, there will also be a free networking lunch.

Two days in the life of Better-B were accompanied by Stephen Fleming from BeeCraft. Enjoy reading his story about the search for the varroa-tolerant bee in Nottinghamshire!