Provide a Habitat

Habitat loss and the distance between habitat sites are largely responsible for the decline of many pollinators. Creating even a small pollinator habitat in your back yard can be helpful. All you need are some flowering plants that bloom at different times of the year (preferably native plants – avoid invasive species), some host plants (such as milkweed for monarchs), and nesting and overwintering sites.

Leave bare dirt or woody vegetation for ground and wood nesting native bees, buy or make a wooden bee house for mason bees, start a honey bee hive (you'll get some delicious honey in the process), find the appropriate host and nectar plants to attract certain butterflies, and coax bats to your property by putting up a bat house (bats eat mosquitoes, so think of it as natural pest control!). Speak to your local community leaders – can a vacant lot be turned into a pollinator garden? The distance pollinators can fly varies greatly, so the more habitats we have for them, the better.

For more information on providing a habitat for pollinators:

· USDA Forest Service’s Gardening for Pollinators

· Pollinator Partnership’s Ecoregional Planting Guides

· The Xerces Society’s Bee Friendly Plant Lists

Avoid Pesticides

Pesticides don’t discriminate. They harm not just your bad insects, but your beneficial ones, such as pollinators, as well. Pesticides break down slowly and can therefore be a lingering hazard to both pollinators and wildlife. If a plant is sprayed with a pesticide and a bee forages from that plant, the toxins are absorbed through the skin or are consumed. If it is a lethal dose, the pollinator dies. If not strong enough to kill it, it can be enough to cause the pollinator navigation problems, uncontrolled movements, or paralysis. It can also affect egg laying or harm the larvae.

You might think the safer alternative is an herbicide, however, some of them can be just as harmful to pollinators and wildlife, as well. Read labels and educate yourself. Avoid products that contain an insectacide called Neonicotinoids. Neonicotinoids are absorbed into all parts of the plant and, once absorbed, is even found in the nectar and pollen.

For more information on Neonicotinoids:

· The Xerces Society’s Neonicotinoids In Your Garden

Learn More

Educate yourself and spread the word about the importance of pollinators. There are a variety of websites and books for reference. Here is a small sampling…

Websites

· U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Pollinators Page

· Pollinator Partnership

· The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation

· MonarchWatch.org

· Bat Conservation International

Books

· The Xerces Society Guide: Attracting Native Pollinators – Protecting North America’s Bees and Butterflies by The Xerces Society and Dr. Marla Spivak

· Bring Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants by Douglas W. Tallamy

· The Life Cycles of Butterflies (includes information on host and nectar plants) by Judy Burris and Wayne Richards