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The importance of marking pollinators

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November 12 to 19 marks Australian Pollinator week, which acknowledges our important and unique insect pollinators. To raise awareness of the essential role of pollinators in our environment and what you can do to support their needs, Watershed Landcare hosted a Native Bee Motel workshop.

Presenter Liz Davis, Central Tablelands LLS Regional Landcare Facilitator, guided participants through the building of their own bee motel to take home, as well as highlighting the function of native pollinators to ecosystem services and our environment.

Eighteen participants, including 5 children, attended the 2 hour workshop held at the Australian Rural Education Centre (AREC) last Sunday.

“It’s great to see children getting involved and learning about the important role native pollinators make to our plants.” said Claudia Wythes, Watershed Landcare Coordinator.

“It’s such an easy thing for anyone to make and put in their back yard to provide a home for the native bees.” she continued.

The Lucknow Men’s Shed made the boxes for the motels for a series of workshops held across the Central West as part of National Pollinator week activities. Workshop participants used common materials such as dock, carrot weed stems, hemlock and old thistle to fill the boxes and provide lots of nooks and crannies for the native bees to nest in.

“Anything that has a hollow core makes a great home for native bees, it’s just a matter of using your imagination and being creative. Such a small thing makes a big difference to the population of native bees.” said Ms Wythes.

This event is supported by Watershed Landcare and is a part of the NSW Government’s Local Landcare Coordinators Initiative, supported through the partnership of Local Land Services and Landcare NSW.

Missed out on the workshop? It’s not too late for you to get involved in National Pollinator week.

Despite there being around 2,000 native bee species, as well as a couple of thousand butterfly, wasp, fly, moth, beetle, thrips and ant species, some of which are documented pollinators, very little is known about their ecology, where they are found or what plants they pollinate.

By simply watching any flowering plant for just ten minutes you can help to build a picture of wild pollinators in your local environment and help to build a database on wild pollinator activity.

To contribute to this citizen Science project visit: wildpollinatorcount.com.

Help provide homes for pollinators

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Pollinators are vital to keep plant species flowering and re-producing. But did you know that many of our food crops such as fruit, wine grapes and vegetables rely on native insects for this service?

Australia has about 1,600 species of native bees, with around 250 to 300 species being found within a 100 kilometre radius of any given area.

Many native pollinators are also predators, feeding on other pest insects. Wasps, hoverflies and shield bugs can reduce the numbers of insect pests in orchards, vineyards and other agricultural crops as well as your ornamental or veggie garden.

Many native pollinators are under threat; land clearing and the extensive use of pesticide and fungicide sprays have removed their food source and their habitat.

With over 75% of flowering plants relying on insect pollinators for reproduction, the decline of their populations is bad news for biodiversity, ecosystems and the security of many of our food sources.

Whether your backyard is a farm, bushland, suburban block or a balcony you can help to support and protect native pollinator populations.

Valuable pollinator habitat can be created by maintaining and enhancing native vegetation, planting lots of flowering plants and minimising or eradicating pesticide and fungicide use.

You can also provide habitat for cavity-nesting insects by bundling together hollow stems from pruning.

Native bee hotels or motels not only provide plenty of nooks and crannies for these beneficial insects to nest in but can be very decorative as well. These can be made in all shapes and sizes, the only limit is your creativity!

If you would like to learn more about our native pollinators and how to provide habitat for them in your backyard, Watershed Landcare will be hosting workshops to help you build your own bee motel at the Mudgee Small Farms Field Days in July.