Essential Pollinators

 

After last week's spring and summerish weather, you might be seeing more pollinators in your neighborhood. 

Pollinators — including bees, butterflies, birds, bats, and moths — are essential to New Jersey’s food, gardens, and natural areas: roughly one out of every three bites of food depends on animal pollination, and local programs from Rutgers and Jersey‑Friendly Yards offer practical, region‑specific ways to help. 

Pollinators transfer pollen that enables plants to produce fruits, seeds, and nuts. This service supports about one‑third of global food production and underpins many of the fruits, vegetables, nuts, and oilseeds that make diets nutritious. 

In the United States, insect pollination was valued at tens of billions of dollars, reflecting the economic importance of these species to agriculture and local farms. New Jersey crops that rely on pollinators include blueberries, cranberries, peaches, tomatoes, and peppers. Native bees and honey bees both contribute to these yields. 

Native plantings and small habitat patches in yards, parks, and roadsides make a measurable difference because many pollinators are short‑ranged and depend on continuous floral resources. 

Primary threats to pollinators are habitat loss, pesticide exposure, disease and parasites, and climate change. Populations of many pollinator species have declined in recent decades, which can reduce crop yields and the availability of nutrient‑rich foods. 

What are some practical actions for New Jersey residents?

1. Plant native species that bloom from early spring through fall to provide continuous nectar and pollen. Rutgers and Jersey‑Friendly Yards offer region‑specific plant lists and planting guides. 
2. Cluster plantings and include host plants for caterpillars (e.g., milkweed for monarchs) to support both adult pollinators and larvae. 
3. Reduce or eliminate pesticide use and adopt integrated pest management; when treatment is necessary, apply at night and avoid bloom periods. 
4. Provide nesting and water resources: leave some bare ground for ground‑nesting bees, retain dead wood for cavity nesters, and offer shallow water sources. 
5. Replacing lawns with native plantings reduces mowing and chemical use but may require initial investment and maintenance. Expect some leaf or caterpillar feeding on host plants; this is normal and supports butterfly life cycles.

Jersey‑Friendly Yards provides planting guides and local tips for New Jersey homeowners. 

Rutgers Cooperative Extension offers county‑level guidance, native plant lists, and Master Gardener programs. 

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service New Jersey Field Office publishes recommended native plant lists for pollinators and habitat restoration guidance. 

See a list (pdf) of Native Plants for Pollinators and Beneficial Insects for our Mid-Atlantic Region

Moths as Pollinators

We wrote earlier about how New Jersey moths survive our winters. Today, we are thinking about warmer weather and how moths act as surprisingly good pollinators.

When we think of pollinators, bees are probably the first thing that comes to mind. Moths are more efficient than bees at pollinating some plants. 

A handful of moth species that eat our clothes, invade our pantries, and destroy our crops have given them all a bad name for many people, but most moth species are not pests. 

In terms of species, moths are about eight times more diverse than bees, and 10 times more diverse than butterflies, which actually evolved from moth ancestors. In fact, we now know that moths are the single most diverse group of pollinators on Earth, with more than 123,000 species visiting flowers around the world.  

Source: The Secret Lives of Moths - Nautilus

Also see Butterflies and Moths - BugGuide.Net

Polyphemus Moth

U.S. Wildlife Officials Plan to List Monarch Butterflies

Migrating monarchs  -  NPS Photo

The US Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed listing the monarch butterfly as threatened with extinction under the Endangered Species Act. The law states that a species is labeled "threatened" when it is likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future.

Winter is the time when millions of monarch butterflies journey thousands of miles across North America to spend winters in the forests and mountains of central Mexico.But over the years, the beloved butterfly has seen such a troubling decline in its population.

Monarch butterflies in New Jersey are no exception and also migrate to Mexico for the winter. Every year, they embark on an incredible journey, traveling up to 3,000 miles from as far north as Canada to the mountain forests of central Mexico1. New Jersey plays a special role in their migration, as thousands of monarchs stop at the tip of the Cape May peninsula to rest and refuel before crossing Delaware Bay. 

The monarch plays a significant role in maintaining its ecosystem's biodiversity. It is an important pollinator and a vital food source for various animals.

the threats are all too common - habitat loss (often from legal or illegal logging), exposure to insecticides, and the climate crisis. These factors have shifted the monarch's breeding and migratory patterns.

The loss of pollinators would have far-reaching consequences for ecosystems and economically for agricultural production. Pollinators are responsible for 75% of the production of the food for humans. But with President-elect Donald Trump - whose previous administration attempted to water down protections for endangered species - protection of a species may be much more difficult..

It was two years ago that the International Union for Conservation of Nature categorized the migratory monarch butterfly, specific to North America,as endangered due to climate change and habitat loss. In just one year, between 2021 and 2022, the presence of monarch butterflies in their Mexican forest wintering grounds dropped by 22%, according to a recent report from the World Wildlife Fund.

More at njconservation.org/our-marvelous-mysterious-migrating-monarchs/

Bring Back the Bees

An interesting environmental advertising project - a billboard that produces real honey
for Honey Nut Cheerios.

What is the only insect that produces food eaten by humans? It is nature's most economical builders, bees. In 36 BC, Marcus Terentius Varro argued that honeycombs were the most practical structures around. Centuries later, Greek mathematician Pappus solidified the "honeycomb conjecture" by making the same claim.

The weather is warming and you're probably seeing bees out looking for spring flowers. Hopefully, you are a friend of bees. Of course, there are reasons to avoid doing things that might provoke a bee to go into a defensive mode and sting you. But encouraging bees in your garden and in nature in general is a good thing for all of us and for the planet.

The amazing little bees might surprise you with their good color vision. Flowers have many colors for that attractive reason. Bees especially like blue, purple, violet, white and yellow.

Did you know that honeybees can make out faces the same way we do? They take parts—like eyebrows, lips, and ears—and cobble them together to make out the whole face. It's called "configural processing," and it might help computer scientists improve face recognition technology

We need bees. One in three foods we eat is made possible by bees and other pollinators who spread the pollen that crops need to grow. That includes many of our favourite foods like apples, almonds, coffee, and of course, honey. 70 out of the top 100 human food crops are pollinated by bees

An important part of sustainable agriculture is bees.

There are over 20,000 species of bees in the world. Honeybees have thrived for 50 million years, but colonies recently started dying in large numbers. 42% of bee colonies in the U.S. collapsed in 2015.

Why? Renowned entomologist and bee specialist Marla Spivak reveals four reasons why, and what we can do to help in this Ted Talk.



Common sense actions can restore and protect the world’s bees. Good starting places are:
- Ban the seven most dangerous pesticides.
- Protect pollinator health by preserving wild habitat.
- Restore ecological agriculture.

Cheerios cereal (General Mills) partnered early this year with Veseys Seeds to give away wildflower seeds so that people would plant them and make the world a bee-friendlier place. They quickly met their goal of distributing 100 million seeds.

The promotion hit a snag though because in sending free packets of wildflower seeds to people all over the country, they seem to have failed to take into account that some of the flowers included are invasive species in some areas that should NOT be planted there.  For example, Forget-me-not (which was listed on their site but supposedly not included in the seed mix) is banned as a noxious weed in Massachusetts and Connecticut. And the California poppy is good in California, but listed as an “invasive exotic pest plant” in southeastern states. Some of the flowers on there list are not native to anywhere in the US, so they are not necessarily good matches for our local bees.

Of course, you can still plant wildflowers on your own that are bee-friendly. This guide for the mid-Atlantic states is useful to grow pollinator-friendly plants. For other parts of the country, go to xerces.org/pollinator-conservation/plant-lists/ or check the USDA site to see if a plant is native to your state.

I am pleased to see General Mills making efforts for bees, even if this seeds project was less than perfect. By 2020, they expect their oat farms will host about 3,300 acres of nectar- and pollen-rich wildflowers, which are full of the nutrients bees and other pollinators need to stay strong.

Finally, it is important to remember that you can do more than just plant flowers to help create a bee-friendly habitat. Avoiding using pesticides outside on or near the flowers (including if you have a garden or lawn service spraying) is very important.

Also note that bees are not our only pollinators. Bees are the major pollinators - and this includes not just honey bees - but also hummingbirds and some kinds of butterflies, and to a lesser degree spiders, flies and wasps. Even bats who feed on the insects in the flowers as well as on the nectar and flower parts play a role in the pollination of over 300 species of fruit around the world.