Hive-style “bee hotels” are coming to New York City’s seven public plazas to help endangered native pollinators thrive, but one expert says bees will never be able to survive on concrete. He says he has no intention of flying in the jungle.
The city’s high-profile project will provide nutrition and nests in the form of wooden boxes on utility poles and bee-friendly plants, Department of Transportation Secretary Ydanis Rodriguez said Thursday.
“Our streets and public squares are always vibrant, but this year they will be in the bee’s lap.” Rodriguez said In a press release.
“Honeybees are essential to the health of our planet, and this initiative will help create habitat for at-risk native bees and facilitate important scientific research.”
The bee breeding space is intended to protect the ticklish bee, a small ground-dwelling insect that “very rarely stings people,” Rodriguez added. at a press conference.
The plaza includes an underground “bunker” surrounded by plants and nutrient-rich soil where female bees build nests and lay eggs.
But Anthony “Tony Bees” Pranakis, a former unofficial bee expert for the New York City Police Department, said luring the insects into such dense urban environments “could do more harm than good to them.” he warned.
“Sustainability is the number one thing for me. Urban bees are not sustainable. There’s not enough space for them to forage,” says the 30-year-old, who currently works as a private beehive removal consultant. Mr Planakis said. “Concrete doesn’t secrete pollen.”
“These bees don’t have stingers and can’t protect themselves from yellow hornets and hornets,” he says. “Why are you destroying nature? Leave them alone.”
He said bee hotels on Staten Island or in the “suburbs” could be successful, but not in space-constrained boroughs like Manhattan or the Bronx.
Bee-friendly stations will be located at Cooper Square Plaza in Manhattan, 34th Street in Queens, and Water Street Plaza in Staten Island.
It also plans to open stores in Quisqueya Plaza in the Bronx and Gates Avenue in Brooklyn. It has already been tested at Parkside Plaza in Brooklyn and Fordham Plaza in the Bronx.
A 2022 report from the New York State Department of Environmental Protection found that up to 60% of the state’s native pollinators are at risk due to population decline.
On this project, the Department of Transportation partnered with the New York Horticultural Society, known as Hort, and Rutgers University.
“The City of Hort and the Department of Transportation are transitioning much of the planting in public plazas and open streets to perennials, including many native plants and pollinators,” said Dr. Jeremy Jungels said. .
