Bumblebees sensitive to road traffic, study finds fewer nests on busier roads

"Along the least trafficked roads, we found hardly any dead bumblebees at all, but already at around 4,000 vehicles per day we found more dead than live bumblebees during our surveys," says doctoral student Sofia Blomqvist in a press release from Lund University.

While flower-rich roadsides along smaller roads are attractive nesting sites for bumblebees, virtually no bumblebee nests were found along busier routes.

The study was funded by the Swedish Transport Administration and has been published in the scientific journal Biological Conservation.