Britons are facing up to the plight of the bumblebee

LONDON — The buzz of the bumblebee has always been as much a part of the British summer as Wimbledon and candy floss.

But the soothing sound may soon become only a fond memory. Experts say that Britain's bumblebee population is quickly vanishing as farmers use more pesticides and plow up pristine wildflower meadows.

Already, three of the 25 species of bumblebees native to the United Kingdom are extinct, with as many as eight others in serious danger of disappearing unless quick action is taken.

As a result, a top bumblebee expert, Dave Goulson at the University of Stirling in Scotland, launched the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, a pressure group designed to save the bumblebee, in late May. In the first week, the effort reaped 500 memberships at a price of nearly $30 a year.

The members' first mission: to track down the elusive bilberry bumblebee, often called the most beautiful of all the British bumblebees because of its mostly orange abdomen.

The trust also has urged gardeners to use more traditional native plants such as rosemary, bluebells, and geraniums, which bumblebees find more alluring than unfamiliar imports. Most gardens should be able to lure at least six species of bumblebee if stocked with plants amenable to the creatures, it says.

Ben Darvill, an ecologist and co-founder of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, said there are many reasons to pay attention to the plight of the bumblebee.

"Bees are very important everywhere as pollinators and, from a commercial point of view, there are lots of agricultural crops that would suffer reduced crop yields without bees," he said. Examples, he said, are broad, field, and runner beans and also raspberries.

Darvill said there's a massive amount the public can do to help the bumblebee effort.

"Just by recording where you see different species of bumblebee is a big help," he said.

An editorial in the Independent, a British newspaper that's supporting the bumblebee effort, chronicled the many reasons why Britons have such an affinity for the bumblebee.

"They're furry and appear cuddly. They're obviously hard-working. And they're as much a part of our gardens as lawns," it said.

It's not just Britain that's troubled by a dwindling bumblebee population. In North America, too, the numbers appear to be in decline.