Now that it’s spring, I have a few tips for you about some things you can do around your yard and garden to help encourage the nesting and food supply for our native pollinators.
There are about 4,000 species of native bees that occur in the western region, and these are not the honeybee, these are bees that live very differently than the honey bee. They mostly live in solitary areas or groups that aggregate together, but they don’t have a hive where they share activities, as the honey bee. We have a few fact sheets on our Utah pest extension webpage that can give you some great ideas for what you can do around your yard and garden.
For example, if you’re not aware, things like weed fabric are actually prohibitory bees being able to nest into the ground. You can provide areas with gravel or sand, this is ideal for ground-nesting habitats. Also having some twigs and raspberry canes and things like that can provide great twig nesting sites, are ideal. Provide lots of flowers that bloom at different times of the year, and have small flowers that provide high-quality pollen and nectar. These can be flowering trees, shrubs perennials, annuals, all types.
By providing these types of resources around your yard and garden, you can attract a wide variety of native pollinators to help keep your plants and garden healthy, and also help protect our native pollinators.
