What’s all the buzz? June is National Pollinators Month and it's a great time to learn more about our local pollinators and how you can help them! First of all, what is pollination? Pollination is the movement of pollen from male parts of flowers to female parts of flowers to create seeds. This can be done by wind, gravity or animals. Any animal that moves pollen from flower to flower is called a pollinator.
More than 80 percent of flowering plants rely on animal pollinators for reproduction. Pollinators feed on plant pollen and nectar to survive and to raise their young, so plants and pollinators depend on each other. Seeds, nuts, fruits and berries produced from pollination are also used by a vast array of wildlife. In Ohio, the primary pollinators are native bees, honeybees, wasps, flies, butterflies and hummingbirds. Sometimes beetles and other insects perform this important duty, too. Though bats in Ohio are not pollinators, bats play an important role in pollination in the southwest where they feed on agave and cactus.
We wouldn’t be able to make healthy lifestyle choices without the healthy foods brought to us by pollinators. Pollinators help bring one of every three bites of food that we eat to our plates. These pollinator-dependent foods are also the most vital and nutritious part of our diet--fruits and vegetables!
Alfafa, melons, soybeans and tomatoes are some of the crops raised in our area that rely on honey bees and native bees for pollination. Domestic honey bees pollinate approximately $10 billion worth of crops in the U.S. each year. Honey bees also provide us with a natural source of sweetness--honey!