New app helps residents be Bee-bnb hosts
TORONTO – Today the David Suzuki Foundation launched Bee-bnb, a web and mobile platform aimed at transforming Canada’s home sharing industry. Like the wildly popular Airbnb platform, Bee-bnb will help wild bees and other beneficial bugs find food and shelter in residential yards, gardens and balconies.
“Bee-bnb could revolutionize how bees and butterflies find places to stay,” renowned broadcaster and environmentalist David Suzuki said. “Pollinators give us flowers, fruit and vegetables. As spring begins to bloom, I encourage everyone to give back by becoming Bee-bnb hosts.”
Participating Bee-bnb households can upload essential information, including amenities such as gardens filled with native wildflowers, water sources and sunny patches for basking. Critters can search for nearby accommodations and book spots along their migratory routes.
“Canada has more than 800 bee species, yet Bee-bnb is the first platform created to help them find shelter and tasty wildflowers at home and away,” DSF pollinator program manager Jode Roberts said. “We developed Bee-bnb to help bring insects into the sharing economy and give humans an easy way to give back to our pollinator pals.”
“A growing body of science shows that cities can be welcome refuges for many bee species,” University of Toronto-Scarborough wild bee researcher professor Scott MacIvor said. “With an estimated 40 per cent of insects facing extinction worldwide, efforts like Bee-bnb could help bring bees and other essential insects back from the brink. And that’s no joke.”
In the coming months, developers will also release Butterfly-bnb to help butterflies connect with host plants their caterpillars depend on, like milkweed and thistles.
The platform still has a few bugs, but the beta version is available today only as a free download at davidsuzuki.org/beebnb.
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For more information or to arrange an interview:
Jode Roberts: jroberts@davidsuzuki.org, (647) 456-9752, @joderoberts