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If you’re a fan of bees—which you should be if you like flowers, trees and the continued survival of human beings on the planet—then you’re going to find these new "bee hotels" around New York City absolutely adorable.
The New York Department of Transportation and the Horticultural Society of New York teamed up to create these cute designated habitats in public plazas and across streets for bees to take refuge in. Dubbed “bee bunkers,” they will be used as pit stops for bees that are on their way to access larger green spaces.
In fact, in the city, the insects have difficulty surviving, mostly given the relative lack of vegetation and limited access to nature.
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Don't worry about potentially getting stung: The bee hotels were meant to attract tickle bees, a small native species that rarely stings humans, according to NYC DOT.
"Through this work, we are creating living spaces for native bee pollinators in the city, including both flowers and appropriate nesting sites," Dr. Kimberly N. Russell, undergraduate program director/associate professor of teaching at the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources at Rutgers University said in a statement. "Most bee species cannot live in hives, so we need to give them other materials to build their homes.”
The "bee bunkers" will look like small bird houses filled with natural materials and soil where females will be able to build their nests and lay eggs. Researchers at Rutgers will be monitoring the new bee hotels to learn how they move across the city. To minimize potential interactions with people, the nests will be built inside of existing planters.
The bee hotels were already tested at Parkside Plaza in Brooklyn and Fordham Plaza in the Bronx last year. The expanded project is going to bring the bunkers to Cooper Square Plaza in Greenwich Village; Quisqueya Plaza (Dyckman Plaza) in Inwood; Water Street in Staten Island; Gates Ave in Brooklyn; and 34th Ave in Queens.
"Bees are our friends, a key to literally sustaining life on this planet," said Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi said in a statement to DOT NYC. "The least we can do is to make our city welcoming to them, an urban environment full of color and biodiversity."