Why are pollinators important?
Dive into the importance of pollinators and why they are worth protecting.
Pollinators
Pollinators are insects and animals, such as bees, butterflies, moths, bats, beetles and birds, that move pollen from one flower to another. This important process is called pollination and helps plants make fruit and seeds (which make more plants!). These plants provide us with food, clothing, shelter, clean air, soil and water.
At least 75% of all the flowering plants on earth are pollinated by insects and animals!
Without pollinators, your pizza would just be dough!
Pollination
Plants can’t walk around to meet other plants, so they need the help of pollinators to reproduce. Plants attract pollinators to visit them with bright colors and a sugary syrup called nectar. When the pollinator visits the flower to sip the nectar, it brushes against the flower’s anther and gets pollen stuck to its body. When the pollinator visits another flower, the pollen sticks to the flower’s stigma. The fertilized flower then grows into fruit and seeds, making more plants!
Bee pollinating another flower.
Bee collecting nectar from a flower.
Why are pollinators disappearing?
Pollinators are in decline due to poisons in the environment, the changing climate, and lack of safe, abundant and diverse food sources and habitat.
Bees pollinate one out of every three bites of food that you eat, 75% of all flowering plants.These pollinated plants provide us with food, clothing, shelter, clean air, soil and water. Worldwide, there are roughly 20,000 species of bees and 3,600 are native to North America.
Bees make vital resources.
“If the bee disappeared off the face of the Earth, man would only have fouryears left to live.”
Interested in learning more about
how to protect our pollinators?
Solitary Bees
Solitary bees come in many shapes, sizes and colors. 90% of all bees are solitary!
Solitary bees are super hairy and a bit messy so they are great at transporting pollen from flower to flower. They are super local pollinators and will fly only about 250 yards from their habitat to find food.
Solitary Bees are excellent pollinators
Solitary bees are friendly bees!
Solitary bees lay their baby bee cocoons in singular cavities in hollow reeds or in the ground. They live for a short time and rest in flowers. They are gentle because they don’t have a hive, colony or a queen to protect!
Solitary Bee Life Cycle
Solitary Bees + Social Bees
Bees are very important pollinators! They come in many shapes, sizes, and colors. They can be social or solitary.
Solitary bees live independently. Each female bee builds her nest, collects pollen and nectar and lays her eggs without help from other bees. Solitary bees will make or find cavities in the ground or in hollow stems to lay their baby bee eggs.
90% of all bees are solitary!
Social bees, like honeybees and bumblebees, live and work together in a colony to create their home, make their food and raise the baby bees. Social bees have a queen who lays all the eggs for the colony. Honeybee colonies can live several years because they collect pollen and nectar to make honey for the colony to survive the winter.
Bees are very important pollinators! They come in many shapes, sizes, and colors. They can be social or solitary.
