Not all bugs are bad. Beneficial insects provide a service to humans and the environment, such as pest control, pollination, and providing clean-up, acting as decomposers and returning rich nutrients to the soil.
A pollinator is an animal that transfers pollen among plants, fertilizing them so the plants can bear fruit. Bees, wasps, ants, butterflies, and beetles are our most common pollinators, although as many as 1500 species of birds and mammals also serve as pollinators. Three-fourths of the world’s flowering plants and about 35 percent of the world’s food crops depend on animal pollinators to reproduce.
It is a goal of the Caro Garden Club to provide good habitat for pollinators and beneficial insects; food, water, and shelter. Native plants and constant blooms provide food. Our bubbler fountain is a good source for water, including a shallow source for butterflies. Shelter, includes a place to rest, mate, and raise young, can be found throughout the Caro Botanical Garden including:
· Mason bee house – These solitary bees are often the first pollinators in our garden. They look for shelter in small cracks and holes.
· Dead trees and logs provide vital habitat, a source for food, a perch for predators searching for prey, a hiding place, and a home for moss, lichens, and fungi, who decay the logs and return nutrients to the soil.
· Insect hotel filled with habitat and food for wildlife beneficial to the garden. The straw or wood shelters lacewings who feed on many pests, flower pots filled with hay attracts earwigs who eat aphids, wooden boards attract decomposers and provide overwintering shelter for lady beetles, and bundles of branches attract hoverflies
· A variety of plants, including mature trees, shrubs, and ground covers will provide shelter for back yard wildlife.
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