Helping pollinators in winter

Everyone loves bees, butterflies, and other pollinators, and most people understand the critical role beneficial insects play in the environment. And many gardeners and homeowners native plants This is what insects need as a food source and habitat throughout the growing season.

So have you thought about what you can do in your yard or garden to help these good guys get through the winter? If we want to see these creatures in our gardens and home landscape next spring, we must consider providing suitable shelter for nesting and wintering.

Think like a pollinator

Most bees and wasps build small nests underground, inside dead plant stems, or in cavities in wood or rock. Other beneficial insects, such as butterflies, moths, fireflies, wasps, ladybugs, and ground beetles, seek shelter in places that provide protection from predators and harsh weather, such as leaf litter and brush piles.

The availability of nesting and wintering habitat is one of the most important factors affecting the population size of native bees and other beneficial insects.

Garden: Pussy willow growing in home landscape

If you care about these pollinators, it’s not enough to simply plant a variety of native plants in the spring, you also need to provide appropriate habitat in your garden and home landscape to help these insects and pollinators survive the winter.

Compared to artificial nesting options such as bee blocks and bee hotels, natural nesting features better mimic the insects’ natural nesting site density and decompose naturally over time, limiting disease and parasite problems.

Save the stems

Many perennials, such as coneflowers, sedums, black-eyed Susans, Joe-Pye weeds and others, provide a place for pollinators and beneficial insects to overwinter and also provide a winter food source for seed-eating birds such as finches.

After the seed heads of these plants mature, turn brown and split, the seed heads are cut off and left on the ground. Some seeds will be eaten by birds and insects, and this will also allow some plants to self-sow, resulting in more plants and more flowers next spring.

Leave any remaining stems standing, as the stems provide habitat and wintering grounds for a variety of beneficial insects. You can prune these dead stems to various heights, from approximately 8 inches to 24 inches above the ground. This will create vertical nesting opportunities with a variety of diameters suitable for insects of different body sizes.

Garden: Cool season vegetable growing

However, the leaves and stems of diseased plants should be pruned close to the ground and destroyed. Unless you’re a serious composter who measures the temperature of your compost pile, dispose of diseased plant material in household trash to prevent pathogens from surviving in your compost pile.

leave some leaves

Many species of butterflies and moths use leaf litter to protect eggs, caterpillars, chrysalis, or adults from wintering. luna moths They line their cocoons with leaves, and the chrysalis of swallowtail butterflies resemble dried leaves, blending in with real leaves and can easily be thrown to the curb with discarded leaves.

Some overwintering queen bumblebees also rely on leaf litter for winter protection. In late summer, mated queens burrow an inch or two deep into the soil to hibernate, and a layer of decaying leaves provides additional insulation and protection for the overwintering queens.

Leaving some leaves on the ground in planting beds has other ecological benefits; because the leaves will add some nutrients and organic matter to the soil as they decompose during the winter months. A layer of leaves will also help moderate soil temperatures, encourage root growth, and prevent soil heaving from freezing and thawing cycles.

By leaving a shallow layer of leaves in plant beds, you will provide winter cover for spiders, slugs, worms, beetles, centipedes, mites and other food-providing organisms. squirrelsturtles, birds and amphibians.

Postpone bed cleaning until spring

In the spring, wait as long as possible to remove dead stems and weeds from garden beds, as these plant materials may contain overwintering insects in early spring, depending on the insect species.

Ideally, gardeners should wait until it is time to start. mow the lawn regularly because it is likely that the bees that had overwintered by then emerged to take advantage of the early blooming flowers. It is even better to wait if possible. apple trees They are blooming because mining and bumblebees will be the first to emerge to feed on apple blossoms.

Mike Hogan is an Extension Educator in Agriculture and Natural Resources and an associate professor at Ohio State University Extension.

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This article first appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Garden: How to help pollinators survive the winter