Hooray for Pollinators!

 This past week has been National Pollinators Week. While many people think of the honey bee as a main pollinator, and it is a frequent one, it is not a native species. Fortunately there are myriad other pollinators, most of which are native, that will pollinate many different things. After all, if plants weren't pollinated, our choices of things to eat would be greatly reduced!

We are fortunate to have a twelve plot community garden in the municipal park behind our place. It is designed for individual gardeners to grow things for their tables. Sometimes surplus produce is donated to a local food bank.

The garden is coming along nicely, although with the relatively hot dry weather of late, gardeners must water their plot to ensure things continue to grow as planned.

There is lots of diversity of things planted, such as:

Patty Pan

Peppers

Potatoes

Lots of one of my favourites....

Tomatoes

...some of which are already well developed.

There are lots of other things, such as onions, garlic, zucchini, sweet potatoes, beets and others, as well as herbs such as dill and fennel.

Many of these items rely on pollinators to complete their growth and production. Undoubtedly some pollinators would find these plots even in their relative isolation, but in order to increase the chances of suitable pollinators, two of the twelve plots have been established as a pollinator patch. More than twenty species of mostly native prairie plants have been established in the pollinator patch, which will attract many hundreds of pollinators over the season. And as part of the life cycle of the pollinators, some will lay their eggs on the leaves and stems of the prairie plants. The young pollinators that emerge from the eggs will overwinter in the stems, so that they will be available for the next season's pollinating process. Therefore we do not 'clean up' the dead plant material until spring, so as to give the next generation of pollinators a chance to survive and be ready for pollinating in the subsequent year.

In this pollinator patch, there will be plants in flower and developing seed throughout the season. Right now the following species are in flower:

Butterfly Milkweed

Common Milkweed

Oxeye, or False Sunflower

Pale Purple Coneflower

This next one is mostly finished flowering.

Foxglove Beardtongue

Wild Bergamot

And here are some of the insect stars of the show:

Eastern Calligrapher

Milkweed Bug

This next one, a type of Lady Beetle, is native. So many of the Lady Bugs we commonly see are not native, but have been quite prolific.

Ursine Spurleg Lady Beetle

Long-legged Fly

If you look closely through some of the plants, you may see the face of a little critter staring up at you.

This is a Milkweed Longhorn Beetle, and it is one of the more common beetles I've seen lately.

Not all invertebrate creatures are pollinators, but may be something that feeds on them, such as this spider. I'm not sure what species it is yet, but I enjoyed watching it sit on the stem, then suddenly race out to attempt to grab a small fly type of insect, and then retreat to this spot to wait for the next potential victim.

All of the above were photographed in the last couple of days. Here are a few other garden creatures that I have photographed in this pollinator patch at other times.

The first one is a Carrot Seed Moth. Although most moths are night fliers, it has been recognized that regardless of the time of day or night, some moths play an important role as pollinators.

Eastern Carpenter Bee

Hyaline Grass Bug

Pruinose Squash Bee

Seven-spotted Lady Beetle

It seems with the recent hot dry weather, pollinators and things like butterflies are less evident so far this year. Even things like Monarch butterflies, not a pollinator but certainly something that depends on plants, especially milkweeds, are not as plentiful as one expects. Some sources indicate that the overwintering numbers of Monarchs this past year in Mexico showed an increase from previous winters, suggesting the population of this Species At Risk was rebounding. I have seen a few here and there these last few weeks, but not a lot. Hopefully the weather adjusts to maximize the pollinators as well as Monarchs, if the weather is the difference maker and not the use of pesticides or other insect controlling technology.

Regardless, next time you enjoy those French Fries, tomatoes or whatever plant you are eating, take a moment to thank a pollinator for being able to do what they are designed to do!

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The things you seldom see in the garden

Gardens are great places to study wildlife. It doesn't matter if it is a veggie garden or an ornamental flower garden or a native wildflower garden. If you grow it, they will come!

The challenge is to see the myriad creatures and photograph them so that they can be identified. Some are fairly large and obvious, while others are so small you hardly can see them even when you are looking at them, and they don't really show their spectacular selves until you are able to enlarge them on the computer!

Bees, of course, are welcome pollinators. There are many kinds which show up on their own schedule over the course of the season. This first one is called a type of Cuckoo Bee.

 I haven't figured out exactly what this next one is. I've even posted it on the BugGuide site, and no one has responded yet.

 This next one is the Pruinose Squash Bee. The males especially are often found in the flowers of members of the squash family. They will often spend the night inside the flowers, and apparently if you gently squeeze the flower early in the morning, the bees inside will give a buzzing sound that presumably is meant to say something like 'don't disturb me, I'm trying to sleep'

A large and intimidating member of the bee and wasp family is this next one: the Great Black Wasp. It's body is ~5 cm (2") and its quick darting flight makes one cautious. However it is apparently quite harmless unless you handle it. I've never been bothered by any bee/wasp types even when sticking my camera lens within a few centimetres of their face.

 There are some bee look-alikes, such as this Syrphid Fly.

 One creature you don't want to see, especially if you are trying to grow squash or zucchini, is this next one, the Squash Bug.

 It lays clusters of eggs on the underside of the leaves, and when the larvae emerge, they dig into the plant stems, causing the plant to wither and die.

 Fortunately if you have this next one around, the Feather-legged Fly, it is a predator of the Squash Bug, so it may reduce the negative effects of the Squash Bug.

Beetles abound. These next two images are of the Wedge-shaped Beetle.

 The antennae of this male in the next photo is pretty impressive!

 Some look-alikes include the Goldenrod Soldier Beetle, shown in these next two images.

 Sometimes you may see a caterpillar like creature. It is likely the larva of a beetle of some type.

 The Swamp Milkweed Beetle is often found on any kind of milkweed in the garden.

 Plant 'bugs' are different than beetles, since their wings fold and overlap. These next two bugs are members of the plant bug group, probably in the Lygus genus.

 Flies of various kinds are around, some of which are pollinators. This one is a Tachinid fly.

 A very large one is this Robber Fly.

 At the other end of the size scale is this Long-legged Fly, a very shiny and iridescent but very small fly.

 Grasshoppers of different sizes and colours can be found. These next two are very small, barely 4-5 cm in total length. Since grasshoppers develop from egg to nymph to adult, it is likely these may be nymphs (a small version of an adult)

 If you happen to be a bug crawling around on a flower head, you have to be on the lookout for this next creature. It is an Ambush Bug, and although it is small (barely 2-3 cm) it is quite the predator.

 Day flying moths may show up. This one is quite distinctive, known as the Eight-spotted Forester.

A caterpillar that is often found around milkweeds is this Milkweed Tussock Caterpillar. A group of them can eat a lot of milkweed leaves in a short period of time.

One of the tiniest creatures I've been able to photograph is this leafhopper, of the Scaphytopius genus. It is barely two millimetres in total length!

The garden is a never ending source of fun to explore with a camera and macro lens!