Creating a Pollinator-Friendly Space

What?

A pollinator is an animal that helps many plants reproduce through pollination. Bees, birds, butterflies, wasps, beetles, flies, and moths pollinate plants around the world. Although no bats in British Columbia are pollinators, further toward the equator, bats are responsible for pollinating plants like agave, cocoa, mangoes, and bananas.

Worldwide there are 20,000-30,000 bee species. British Columbia is host to 450 species of bees alone. Each pollinator has specified unique plants that it can pollinate best! Take a look in further detail below.

Threats

Unfortunately, pollinators are under great threat. Habitat loss, insecticides, the spread of disease and invasive species are all contributing to the decline of pollinator species.

To paint a picture, Western Bumblebee, Bombus occidentalis, was once a common species to BC, but because of the impact of these major threats, their numbers have dwindled significantly in recent years. In 2014 COSEWIC designated the Western Bumblebee as Threatened.

(Photo: Xerces Society / Rich Hatfield)

What you can do

Protect and Restore Natural Habitat

By protecting and restoring natural habitat, more habitat is created for this wonderful group of animals. Protecting habitat includes reserving natural spaces for pollinators. This means not developing it, leaving the flowers and letting the grass grow long. Restoring natural habitat also includes removing invasive species and planting native species. This will help to enhance biodiversity and promote more habitat for our pollinator friends.

Refuse Pesticides

Leave the pest catching to the birds and the bats! Although a simple solution, pesticides can be devastating to beneficial insect populations.

Protect Bee Homes

Some bees like to make their homes in fallen trees and leaves on the ground. Twigs, stumps, logs, and other debris make great homes for solitary bees. In order to give them a helping hand, consider leaving these types of garden materials on the ground, not clearing them away.

Similarly, protecting clean drinking water for bees and other pollinators goes a long way in helping them as well. Consider putting out shallow dishes of clean water during the summer. This allows them to take a rest from the sun and refresh themselves.

Leave the Bare Ground for Bees to Nest

Some bees like to nest in the mud. By leaving exposed patches of dirt around your property, you can help these bees find appropriate areas to dig their homes.

Remove Invasive Plants

Invasive plants have the unfortunate ability to wipe out the diversity that we strive for in natural ecosystems. By removing your invasive plants and replacing them with native species, you can help to promote diversity on your own property. Diversity in plant species is essential to helping pollinators. They rely on a diversity of plant species that bloom throughout the year, in order to be succesful.

Planting Bee-Friendly Plants

Planting by Colour

Pollinators are attracted to all different kids of bloom colours. Bees tend to prefer bright white, yellow, or blue flowers. For hummingbirds, plant with reds, oranges, and whites. Beetles have been known to enjoy white or green.
Bloom Year Round

By ensuring a bloom during each month that the pollinators are flying around, you can help them to thrive all year. From February to October, a steady bloom of a diversity of plants can provide the pollinators with plenty of pollen to help them do their jobs.
The More the Merrier

Planting native plants in large patches, no less than one square meter, means that the pollinators do not have to travel as far between plants. Planting in a diversity of shapes and sizes also encourages a diversity of pollinators to fly by your patch.

Making Bee-Friendly Habitat

Building Bee Homes

Cavity-nesting, solitary bees like Leafcutters and Mason Bees naturally live in beetle holes in wood or hollow plant stems like twigs of Elderberry bush (Sambucus racemosa or caerulea). Leaving logs and standing dead trees on your property benefits these bees. Mason Bees become active in early March and will pollinate plants within 90 meters of their cavity. Blue Orchard Mason Bees (Osmia lignaria) appear like flies to many because of their size and bluish black colour.

Let’s build a bee house!

To supplement their natural habitat you can install a wooden bee box next to your garden.

1. Find a 4x4 block of untreated wood 2. Drill holes almost to the end but not through (about 6”-10”), different bit sizes will encourage a diversity of tunnel nesters 3. Clear holes of any wood debris 4. Hang on a hook facing South or East Clean your bee box annually to kill parasites. It can be helpful to have a second box to switch to.

Unconventional Nesting Spots

Bumble Bees commonly nest in abandoned rodent burrows. Kindly leave some holes in the ground for them to call home. Some nest wherever they find insulating material like a compost pile.
Carpenter Bees enjoy nesting in hollow sticks and stems. Consider leaving dead twigs and stems around your property, instead of cleaning them up in the fall.
Mining Bees are solitary ground nesters, who will burrow into well-drained soil to make their homes.

Planting Butterfly-Friendly Plants

Butterflies are pollinators too!

A Few Butterfly Host Plants

    Butterfly
    Plant
  
    Anise Swallowtail
    Spring Gold,  Lomatium utriculatum, Barestem Desert Parsley, , 	
Cow Parsnip, Fennel,
  
    Woodland Skipper
    Native Grasses
  
    Two-Banded Checkered Skipper
    Native and Non-Native Grasses
  
    Clodius Parnassian
    Western Bleeding Heart
  
    Western Tiger Swallowtail
    Oceanspray, Holodiscus discolor, Saskatoon Berry, Willow, Salix spp., Birch, Bitter Cherry
  
    Pale Swallowtail
    Oceanspray, Holodiscus discolor, Alder, Cherry, Ceanothus
  
    Pine White Douglas
    Pine Species, Fir Species, Hemlock Species
  
    Western Elfin
    Labrador Tea, Salal, Arbutus, Kinnickinick, Manzanita
  
    Spring Azure
    Spiraea, Oceanspray, Dogwood, Viburnum, Cherry, Ceanothus
  
  Painted Lady
  Native thistles, Mallows, Wooly Sunflower, Lupines, Pearly Everlasting, Borage

    Lorquins Admiral
    Oceanspray, Saskatoon Berry, Willow, Poplar
  
      Red Armiral
      Stinging Nettles
    
    West Coast Lady
    Stinging Nettles, Mallows
  
    Mourning Cloak
    Willows
  
    Common Wood Nymph
    Native and Non-Native Grasses

A Few Butterfly Nectar Plants


  
    Plant
    Bloomtime
    Colour
  

    Common Camas, Camassia quamash
    April to June
    Purple and Blue
  

    Thimbleberry, Rubus parviflorus
    May to July
    White to Cream
  

    Red-Osier Dogwood, Cornus stolonifera
    April to June
    White to Cream
  

    Sea Blush, Plectritis congesta
    March to June
    White to Pink
  

    Broad-Leaved Stonecrop, Sedum spathulifolium
    March to June
    Yellow
  

    Saskatoon Berry, Amelanchier alnifolia
    April to July
    White
  

    Wild Strawberry
    July
    White
  

  Hookers Onion, Allium acuminatum
    May to June
    Pink and Purple
  

    Harvest Brodilea, Brodiaea coronaria
    July to September
    Blue and Purple
  

    Spring Gold, Lomatium
utriculatum
    February to June
    Yellow
  

    Self-heal, Prunella vulgaris ssp.
lanceolata
    May to September
    Purple
  

    Douglas' Aster, Symphyotrichum
subspicatum
    July to September
    Yellow and Purple
  