Why We Love Pollinators & Insects
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Top 10 Tips for Habitat Pollinator Plants through the Year The Seed Pollinator Resources and much more Nebraska Statewide Arboretum Sustainable Landscapes for Healthy Homes & Communities Summer 2016 Why We Love Pollinators & Insects Justin Evertson, Green Infrastructure Coordinator forgive us for sometimes using the word “insect” to generally mean all arthropods. “We can no longer landscape For many, perhaps most of us, insects with aesthetics as our only goal. We and other arthropods are not easy to love. must also consider the function of our Once we’re old enough to realize that landscapes...” Doug Tallamy some of them can sting or bite us, and especially if they ever do sting or bite us, This issue of The Seed is all about we typically become fearful or disgusted insects and other arthropods as we explore with them. Most babies and toddlers don’t how important they are to gardens, seem concerned about grabbing at bugs landscapes, natural ecology and the or even putting them in their mouths, human endeavor in general. Arthropods but somewhere along the line, many of are defined as invertebrate animals having us develop a general dislike of insects. exoskeletons, a segmented body and Unfortunately, they just seem to creep us jointed legs; the word arthropod means out. “jointed-feet” in Greek. It’s important to We are beginning to see that insects INSIDE note that not all arthropods are insects, but are essential and beneficial in ways we Tips for Attracting Butterflies 2 all insects are arthropods. have failed to understand or appreciate In addition to insects, the arthropod Insects Run the World 3 (see “Insects Run the World” on page phylum includes several other sub-groups Top 10 Tips for Habitat 4 3). Until recently, humans didn’t need such as arachnids (spiders), millipedes, to be too concerned with the ecology or Native vs. Non-native Plants 6 centipedes and crustaceans (yes, lobsters survivability of insects or other animals. Attracting Beneficial Insects 7 and crabs are closely related to insects). Our impact on the planet’s biosphere was Abbreviated Guide to Pollinators 8 It’s estimated that there are at least 1.5 relatively minor. That is no longer the million species of arthropods across the Pollinator Plants through the Year 10 case. Industrial development is highly world and that the actual number may Some of Our Favorite Insects 12 disruptive of ecological processes and be over 5 million. The diversity in size, we can now clearly see negative impacts Fun Facts about Insects 14 shape and form in these creatures is to a wide variety of animals across the A Call for Backyard Diversity 16 truly incredible. In this publication we globe. Alarmingly, the World Wildlife focus primarily on pollinators and other Best Providers for Pollinators 18 Fund’s Living Planet Report estimates a beneficial insects. We hope the reader will Bountiful Borage 18 52 percent decline in vertebrate species population since 1970. Many insect The Joy of Bugs 19 species are also in decline, including a Beneficials beneath Your Feet 20 wide variety of important pollinators. The The Unseen Value of Trees 21 concern for honey bees is well-known Pollinator Resources 22 “Why We Love Pollinators” continued inside Community as Habitat 23 “Why We Love Pollinators” continued from cover and the monarch butterfly has seen a Tips for Attracting precipitous population decline in recent years. Less known are the dozens of pollinating bees, butterflies and beetles Butterflies that are also in serious decline. Humans and insects are intertwined, Besides the sheer pleasure and Single flowers are more open and and their struggles are our struggles. It is beauty of turning a still garden into a accessible to butterflies than the more abundantly clear that we must start do- suddenly moving one, there are many heavily-petaled double flowers. ing a better job of creating and sustaining good reasons to plant a butterfly garden. Hybridized flowers tend to be Dennis Murphy, Director of the Center selected for characteristics other than for Conservation Biology at Stanford nectar supply and therefore are less University, argues that “Planting local likely to be good nectar producers. native plant species in a rich, well-planned Flowers with disc centers offer an butterfly garden reduces the isolation easy access “landing platform” for of native plants in reserves and parks, pollinators. provides essential corridors between Milkweeds are some of the best remaining patches of habitat, and aids in plants for butterflies. An added repairing the patchwork of ecosystems benefit is that common milkweed that survive.” is bad-tasting, so predators quickly habitat that in turn helps sustain insects For many of us, though, seeing learn to avoid eating the larvae. and other animal diversity. Those of us at the sheer delight of a four-year-old One of the best nectar sources is NSA feel strongly that habitat develop- following butterflies around a garden something we grow without trying… ment and conservation should begin at the common dandelion attracts home—on our farms and in our own yards. gossamer wings, vanessids and This issue of The Seed celebrates pollina- skippers. Another common weed, the tors and other important insects and suggests thistle, is particularly popular with ways to help make our planted landscapes monarchs. more supportive of them. Creating low, damp “puddling” areas attracts young males; they use their probosces to withdraw minerals from Photos from top: the wet soil. giant swallowtail; painted lady on purple coneflower; Emily Berg enjoying the wonder of a monarch; monarch on gayfeather. is reason enough to offer habitat. Thankfully, planting a butterfly garden Shelter from wind and rain is is an act of stewardship toward the essential. Thick grasses like little wider environment that is confirmed bluestem or switchgrass, as well as and compelled by our own personal vines and shrubs, are good sources of enjoyment. protection. Below are some tips for attracting For many flowering plants, the butterflies to your garden, including removal of nectar stimulates more many from Lucinda Mays, curator of the production of it. Chadron State College Arboretum. Full sun is the best place for butterflies since most butterflies need body temperatures of 80 degrees Fahrenheit in order to fly. 2 Insects Run the World Jennifer Hopwood, Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation Insects are small and easily over- looked. It can also be easy to underes- timate their value, but insects are at the heart of healthy ecosystems everywhere. Without them, there would be few flow- ering plants. There would be no apples, beans or sunflower seeds for us to eat. Fish, birds, amphibians, reptiles and mam- Pink spotted lady beetle mals would all have much less to eat too. Dead plant and animal matter, along with dung, would mar the earth’s surface and plants convert the energy of the sun into and reduce dung-breeding pests, services waterways. Soil quality would diminish. energy-rich sugars and other nutrients. estimated to be worth $380 million a Insects live everywhere we live and Plant-eating insects make those nutrients year—all for free, of course. available to animals that do not consume some places we cannot. They can be As Regulators plants. Insects such as grasshoppers, found just about anywhere, from deserts It has been estimated that in just a caterpillars, aphids and some beetles and to rainforests, even in Antarctica. While single summer, one pair of common house ants bridge the gap between plants and most are terrestrial, some insects make flies, along with their progeny, can pro- animals by becoming food for fish, birds, duce enough offspring to cover the state their homes in caves, hot springs and ma- amphibians, reptiles and some mammals. of Montana to a depth of nearly 47 feet. rine intertidal zones. By some estimates, We consume many animals that could not Not to worry: insects are their own worst insects make up at least 70 percent of the survive without insects to eat. identified species of animals. For every enemies. Predatory and parasitic insects human on the planet at this moment, there As Dispersers of Seed keep populations of other insects, as well are nearly 2 billion insects. Ants and other insects disperse the as plants and animals, from exploding and Our own lives and the lives of insects seed of 35 percent of flowering plants. unbalancing ecosystems. are intricately intertwined. Biologist E.O. Some ants drop uneaten seed accidentally, “The greatest single factor in keeping Wilson calls them the “little things that while others eat the oily part before drop- plant-feeding insects from overwhelming ping the seed unharmed where it has a the rest of the world is that they are fed run the world.” While some insects are chance to germinate. Why is this service on by other insects,” entomologist Robert harmful to us, those that spread disease or important? Seed dispersal is advanta- Metcalf tells us. Examples of predatory consume our crops make up just a small geous for plants because new seedlings insects in your own backyard include fraction of the known species; the other won’t have to compete with their parents dragonflies that grab and devour mosqui- 98 percent of the more than one million or siblings for light, nutrients or water and toes in flight and paper wasps, which prey known insect species cause us no harm or because it may allow plants to colonize mainly on caterpillars, including the agri- provide us with invaluable services. Here habitats which are not yet occupied by culturally destructive tobacco hornworm. are some of the services insects provide. their species. Nearly 10 percent of known insects have a unique but slightly grisly lifestyle: As Pollinators As Recyclers they place their own eggs into or onto the Over 85 percent of flowering plant What we think of as waste is food to body of a host.