Be a Friend to Pollinators

Three-fourths of the world's flowering plants depend on pollinators to reproduce. Most fruit, vegetable, and seed crops - and other plants that provide fiber, medicines and fuel - are pollinated by animals. Some scientists estimate that one out of every three bites of food we eat exists because of animal pollinators like bees, butterflies and moths, birds and bats, and beetles and other insects.

Pollinators visit flowers in their search for food (nectar and pollen). During a flower visit, a pollinator may accidentally brush against the flower's reproductive parts, unknowingly depositing pollen from a different flower. The plant then uses the pollen to produce a fruit or seed. Many plants cannot reproduce without pollen carried to them by foraging pollinators.

Did You Know?

A world without pollinators would be a world without apples, blueberries, strawberries, chocolate, almonds, melons peaches or pumpkins.

Pollinators are in trouble. Bees, bats, and other animal pollinators face many challenges in the modern world. Habitat loss, disease, parasites, and environmental contaminants have all contributed to the decline of many species of pollinators.

You can help provide food and habitat for pollinators to help them thrive. Use polinator-friently plants in your landscape. Shurbs and trees such as dogwood, blueberry, cherry, plum, willow and poplar provide pollen or nectar or both, early in spring when food is scarce.

Choose a mixture of plants for spring, summer and fall. Different flower colors, shapes and scents will attract a wide variety of pollinators.

Reduce or eliminate pesticide use in your landscape or incorporate plants that attract beneficial insects for pest control. If you use pesticides, use them sparingly and responsibly.

Did You Know?

Midges are small flies. Two species of midge are the only known pollinators of cocao trees, which produce the beans from which chocolate is made.

Provide clean water for pollinators with a shallow dish, bowl or birdbath with half-submerged stones for perches.

Leave dead tree trunks in your landscape for wood nesting bees and beetles.

Support land conservation in your community by helping to create and maintain community gardens and green spaces to ensure that pollinators have appropriate habitat.

Learn more online or contact your local Cooperative Extension Service office (www.nifa.usda.gov/extension/index.html) or US Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service office (www.nrcs.usda.gov) for information about selecting plants for particular pollinators.

We encourage you to sign up in the Backyard Conservation program. To participate, use some of the conservation practices in your backyard that are showcased in this series of tip sheets. Then simply send an e-mail request to backyard@swcs.org or call 1-888-LANDCARE.