Why you should always leave a spoon of sugar in your garden in the hot weather

Mary Poppins extolled the virtues of a spoonful of sugar, and now David Attenborough has joined in too.

This summer, we should be trying to leave a heaped one in the garden as often as possible – especially in the hot weather.

It sounds bizarre – and unhelpful, given that sugar attracts ants and wasps , and we tend to not want them crawling and buzzing around too much.

But there is one creature who will really thank you for it.

Whether you think they're a nuisance or love them, the fact is we rely on bees a lot.

In fact, almost a third of the food we eat is pollinated by these insects who are responsible for feeding 90 percent of the world’s population.

Remove them from the ecosystem, and we have a serious problem.

Unfortunately, that's what we appear to be doing, as a combination of pesticides, urbanisation and climate change are causing bee numbers to drop dramatically.

"If bees were to disappear from the face of the earth, humans would have just 4 years left to live," Attenborough has said in the past.

Here's where a spoonful of sugar comes in.

"This time of year bees can often look like they are dying or dead, however, they’re far from it," Attenborough said according to Country Living .

"Bees can become tired and they simply don’t have enough energy to return to the hive, which can often result in being swept away.

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