York-based biodiversity firm wins £300k funding for innovative mason bee pollination project

The cash injection from Eurostars, part of the European Partnership on Innovative SMEs, will see AgriSound working with Swiss sustainable pollination specialists Wildbiene + Partner AG, to harness mason bees as an alternative to honeybees within orchards.

Casey Woodward, founder and CEO of AgriSound said: “We’re thrilled to have secured such supportive European funding towards our exciting new technological project to use mason bees as incredibly powerful agricultural pollinators.

“Enabling use of this type of bee in commercial spaces could be a game-changer for crop yielding worldwide, and by securing our first international partnership with Wildbiene we expect to begin trialling the new device in 2024-2025.”

AgriSound and Wildbiene will use their funding to develop commercially deployable mason bee habitats, which incorporate bio acoustic listening devices.

The new technology will focus exclusively on the mason bee population, as opposed to the long-established pollinator choices of bumble bees or honey bees.

The firm note that a single mason bee has been shown to perform a similar level of pollination when compared to 200 honeybees and due to their solitary lifestyles, they are less susceptible to common diseases which affect beehive colonies.

Until now, mason bees have been avoided as commercial pollinators because of the lack of professional management practices appropriate for these high-maintenance bees.

The new device will allow food producers and farmers to use mason bees to increase crop yields, allowing producers to better understand, control and sustain the pollinators.

By detecting the density and nature of buzzing sounds of mason bees in the area, the new device will allow farmers or food producers to view analytical data identifying which areas of land may be lacking in mason bees, or where the mason bees there are not thriving.

The device will also detect how happy the bees are to be in their relevant areas and be able to tell when they are chewing out of their cocoons.