All-Ireland Pollinator Plan: Newsletter – September 2025
Comments : 0
 Newsletter: September 2025 The All-Ireland Pollinator Plan is a framework bringing together different sectors across the island of Ireland to create a landscape where pollinators can survive and thrive. Its implementation is coordinated by the National Biodiversity Data Centre. |
To spot this month: keep an eye out for the Common Carder Bumblebee By September, many of our bumblebees are thinking about hibernation. One of the last to be spotted is the Common Carder Bumblebee (Bombus pascuorum) which still flies into October. Keep an eye out for this very common bumblebee this month. It is variable and can become bleached in the sun. However, there are no other bumblebees that have all ginger hairs on the thorax, a ginger tail and then some black hairs on the abdomen. The photograph shows two common carder bees on Knapweed.  Submit your bumblebee sightings To do this month: plan to cut and lift your long-flowering meadows September is the time when long flowering meadows should be cut, and the grass removed. Having these meadows, however small, is a fantastic action for biodiversity as it is returning a vital species-rich grassland habitat that has been lost in Ireland. September is the ideal time to cut and lift, but please be aware that some Councils and large organisations may have cut earlier than this. This can occur where they have large areas to mow before the weather changes and the ground becomes too wet for large machinery. Some flexibility in cutting is fine. More important is that the grass is removed. Fertilising or mulching grass back in will enrich the soil and give grasses an advantage over any wildflowers. Flower-rich meadows are a very fragile habitat that require the correct management each year. Photo below shows cutting and baling in an urban meadow by Waterford City and County Council in previous years.  Guide: Creating and restoring meadows in local communities and gardens See our short video with top tips for creating a meadow Biosecurity Alert issued for Asian Hornet In August, the National Parks and Wildlife Service confirmed the capture of an Asian Hornet (Vespa velutina) in the Cork City area, triggering a biosecurity alert for Ireland. While not a major public health threat, Asian Hornets pose a serious risk to pollinators, especially honey bees, with even a single nest capable of significant damage. A new government-led Asian Hornet Management Group (AHMG), chaired by NPWS and including the Department of Agriculture, National Biodiversity Data Centre, and the National Museum of Ireland, has been formed to coordinate the response. The hornet was first reported via the Invasive Species Record Form by a member of the public, triggering the NBDC alert system. A photograph included in the record was used to confirm identification by entomologists. A survey team was deployed immediately, and an individual hornet was trapped on August 12th. Since then, the nest has been located, and plans are in place for its removal. This is Ireland’s second confirmed sighting; the first occurred in Dublin in 2021. The public is urged to stay alert and report sightings through the NBDC portal with a photo if possible. Do not approach or disturb the insect. Asian Hornets, native to Southeast Asia, were first recorded in Europe in 2004 and have since spread widely. Early detection remains key to preventing establishment in Ireland. The Centre thanks the public, beekeepers and local communities for their cooperation.  Download the Asian Hornet Identification Guide Record possible Asian Hornet sightings here (please include a photograph if possible) New Blog: Make hay while the sun shines To celebrate Heritage Week in August, and this year’s theme ‘Exploring Our Foundations’, we thought it would be interesting to look back at the tradition of haymaking on farms, which has taken place in Ireland for several centuries and forms part of our cultural and natural heritage. Read this lovely blog, with lots of old photographs. It was written by Ruth Wilson, the AIPP Farmland Officer.  Hay making blog Pollinator-friendly hedgerow course Earlier this year, the National Biodiversity Data Centre released an online training course on ‘Farmland Pollinator-friendly Hedgerows’, developed by the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan. With Ireland believed to be the most hedge dense country in the world, the course aims to make farmland more pollinator friendly by helping farmers learn which pollinators they might find on their farm, and which evidence-based actions they can take to help them. We hope the course will give farmers, farm advisors and agricultural students an insight into the value of native species-rich hedgerows and the many benefits they can provide such as shade and shelter for livestock, nutrient buffering to protect water quality, help with flood alleviation and field drainage and refuge for beneficial insects, birds and pollinators. The course includes a section on how to assess your existing hedgerows and find out which native plant species are present, as well as how to manage existing hedgerows and restore and create new ones.  Access the course here UCD study is looking for Andrena nests A UCD team led by Dr Darren O’Connell are looking to gain a greater understanding of the ecology of the solitary mining bees, the Andrena. The research team are seeking locations where large, regular aggregations of Andrena nests are found, particularly summer flying species. Andrena species such as the Heather Mining Bee (Andrena fuscipes), Grey-banded Mining Bee (Andrena denticulata), and Shiny-margined Mini Mining Bee (Andrena semilaevis) form loose aggregations of nests, typically in dry, sandy soil. If you can recommend any suitable locations, please contact Darren O’Connell at darren.oconnell@ucd.ie or Niamh Kennedy at niamh.kennedy6@ucdconnect.ie.  Photo: Andrena denticulata copyright Steven Falk. Can you help find new populations of the Ivy Bee? The Ivy Bee (Colletes hederae) is one of our most recent bee arrivals. It was first spotted at the Raven Nature Reserve (Wexford) in October 2021. It’s a solitary bee with an autumn flight period, to match the flowering of its favourite plant – Ivy. It nests in south facing banks of light soil. It’s current distribution, based on data held in Biodiversity Maps (to end of 2024), is below. The Ivy Bee is quite large and has very distinctive bands of white on the abdomen. To make it a little easier, most of our solitary bees have completed their life cycles now, although there will still be hoverflies, wasps and honey bees on the wing. It’s likely to be around from mid-September until mid-October. Particularly check in areas along the east and south coasts. Submit your record if you think you’ve spotted this bee. Please attach a photograph if it’s from a new location.  Submit your solitary bee sightings Knapweed – a fantastic plant for pollinators! With Autumn upon us, you might still find Knapweed in flower. Learn about why it’s so important for pollinators and biodiversity in this factsheet, created as part of our ‘Biodiversity on your Farm’ series.  Knapweed factsheet Last month for FIT Counts – can you help us reach 1,500 counts for 2025 FIT Counts are an important way that you can help us monitor pollinators. Download the free FIT Count App, watch a 50x50cm patch of flowers for 10 minutes and count how many insects visit. You can carry out a FIT Count anywhere, and on any flower, but where you can, please use one of our 15 target flowers. In September, it’s especially useful to carry out FIT Counts on Ivy. In 2024, 784 validated FIT Counts were submitted by 135 different volunteers. The average number of insects per FIT Count was 7. Why not try one where you are to see how your site compares. Almost 1,400 FIT Counts have been submitted through the app for 2025. Can you help us reach 1,500 counts by the end of September? This would be our highest number of counts ever submitted for one year!  Learn more about FIT Counts The National Biodiversity Data Centre also runs a Garden Butterfly Monitoring Scheme If you are not subscribed to this newsletter and would like to be added to the mailing list, click here    The National Biodiversity Data Centre is a Company Limited by Guarantee. Register Number: 730718. National Biodiversity Data Centre, SETU West Campus, Carriganore, Waterford, Ireland, X91PE03 |
