Home▸Entomology & Insect Behaviour▸Do Managed Honey Bees Harm Wild Pollinators?

🐝 Wild Pollinator Competition Lab

A 3D wildflower meadow lab where you dial up managed honey-bee hive density and watch nectar competition and disease spillover squeeze out wild bumblebees and solitary bees.

Entomology & Insect Behaviour3DAdvanced60 FPS

A wildflower meadow with a managed apiary at one edge — dial up honey bee hive density and watch amber honey bees crowd shared flowers while violet bumblebees and green solitary bees struggle to forage.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

Honey bee colonies field far more foragers than any wild bee population, so raising hive density or foraging range inside a fixed floral budget depletes nectar faster than flowers can regrow, cutting into wild pollinators' foraging success and, over time, their simulated population.

🎮 How to Use

Set hive density, floral abundance, foraging range and season, then toggle disease spillover to see pathogen-contaminated flowers (shown in red) infect wild bees that visit them afterward. Watch the visit-rate stats and population bar respond in real time.

💡 Did You Know?

Research apiaries have found wild bee visitation dropping within a few hundred metres of dense honey bee colonies, particularly in nectar-poor seasons — one reason conservation guidance now recommends siting apiaries away from sensitive wild pollinator habitat.

⚙ Under the hood

A 3D wildflower meadow lab where you dial up managed honey-bee hive density and watch nectar competition and disease spillover squeeze out wild bumblebees and solitary bees.

beespollinatorswildlifeecologyconservationhoneyThree.js

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install