Help Pollinators By Not Using Pesticides

Help Pollinators By Not Using Pesticides

Last but not least on how we can help pollinators, from bees to butterflies. we need to rethink how we use pesticides.

I saw my first Japanese beetle drowned in one of my bird baths earlier this week. Instead of using sprays toxic to bees and pheromone traps, which only attract more Japanese beetles, I use a coffee can with a few drops of dishwashing liquid in water to drown the bugs.

I will start knocking the bugs out of fruit trees early morning when the bugs are sluggish and hand pick all I can. 

Make Your Own Bug Spray

I also make my own spray, a few drops of dishwashing liquid in a spray bottle full of water. When I need to discourage a bug from my plants, I use this combination. If I need to ramp it up, I add a few drops of hot sauce and apply using gloves so the hot sauce doesn’t get on my hands.

Pesticides As Exception

That doesn’t mean there aren’t situations where it is appropriate to use pesticides but please consider other options first. Home gardeners continue to be the leading misusers of pesticides, one of the major causes of the continued bee population struggle.

If you have to use pesticides, also please read product labels first. The Environmental Protection Agency has revised their product labels to make it clear when a product is dangerous to specific pollinators.

By helping pollinators, we are not only helping our ecosystems but ensuring our varied food supply.

Charlotte

Help Pollinators By Not Pulling Plants

Beards tongue plants have spread through one of my flower beds. Bumblebees love them!

How to Help Pollinators By Not Pulling Plants

Do you have plants taking over a garden corner in swaths? Leave them. Many pollinators, such as hummingbirds and bees, depend on large swaths of plants for nectar and pollen.

I know there’s a tendency to want to keep everything nice and neat but that doesn’t necessarily help pollinators. For example, turf grass takes out a potential source for cover and pollen for ground-nesters. Some 80% of all native bees make their homes in the ground.

If you know you have a nest in the ground, plan a flower bed around the nest to protect the pollinator home and minimize family members walking over it getting stung, You can use those extra plants that you want to thin out of another flower bed.

I am not saying you shouldn't think out flower beds; sometimes it's necessary. Just thin out flower beds later in the season when temperatures are more bearable and you have a better plan for where the extra plants will live.

Next, how to help pollinators by not using pesticides.

Charlotte