June 19-25 has been designated National Pollinator Week by the US Department of Agriculture and the US Department of the Interior. Farmers and gardeners alike have seen a decline of many of our pollinating friends.

In celebration of Pollinator Week the Clinton County Master Gardeners will be hosting a Pollinator Scavenger Hunt program, June 15-26. Start your hunt off by obtaining a Pollinator Booklet at one of the following locations: Wilmington Library, Clinton-Massie Library, Clinton County Extension Office or the Cowan Lake naturalist cabin.

From there collect as many pollinators as you can within the 12 days. If you collect 13, be one of the first 75 to get your Pollinator Garden Explorer Kit that will include a t-shirt, pollinator identification booklets, seeds and a bug catcher. Collect them all and get a book on pollinators.

A couple other events to go along with this pollinator event will be “Plant a Pot for Pollinator” on June 16 at Lowe’s from 2-3 p.m. A children’s class at the Wilmington Library from 6-7 p.m. on June 22, and finally June 24 will be a session on “How to Make a Pollinator Garden” beginning at 4 p.m. at the Education Cabin in the Cowan Lake State Park campground.

We think of pollinators many times as just managed honey bees, but actually there are 4,000 species of wild native bees in the US that provide pollination. Native bees can be divided into three broad categories: solitary ground-nesting (mining bee), solitary wood or tunnel-nesting (leaf cutting bees), and our one group of native cavity social bees, the bumble bee.

Native bees alone contribute $3 billion a year to the national economy through pollinating such crops as strawberries, cantaloupe, blackberries, blueberries, and sunflowers.

We must also include the other beneficial pollinators. These would include birds such as the ruby throated humming bird, bats such as the lessor long-nosed bat, beetles such as the soldier beetle, flies such as the hover/flower fly and of course don’t forget all our moths and butterflies.

The annual value of insect pollinated crops according to a Cornell study is $29 billion per year to US farm income.

It is important to know the habitat on your farm. Native bees and other pollinators need both food and shelter — they eat only pollen and nectar and they nest in tunnels or in the ground.

In the process of gathering pollen and nectar resources, pollinators move pollen from one flower to another, and thus pollinate your crops. Pollinators rely upon an abundance and variety of flowers, and need blooming plants throughout the growing season. Such pollinators as native bees don’t build the wax or paper structures we associate with honey bees or wasps, but they do need places to nest, which vary depending on the species.

Wood-nesting bees are solitary, often making individual nests in beetle tunnels in standing dead trees.

Ground-nesting bees include solitary species that construct nest tunnels under the ground. Cavity-nesting social species make use of small spaces, such as abandoned rodent burrows, wherever they can find them.

What is in your farm and home habitat?

Hedgerows or windbreaks can be developed with a variety of plants that benefit pollinators and have overlapping flowering periods. This will provide food and nesting resources for throughout the growing season.

Habitat along streams should contain a diversity of plants. Willows, in particular, will nourish bumble bee queens in the spring so that large numbers of workers are available when crops begin to bloom.

Nearby natural areas may harbor all the native bees needed to pollinate your farm’s crops. Consider inviting your neighbors to help with safeguarding these habitats.

Keeping dead trees standing provides shelter for native bees. Some solitary bees build nests in abandoned beetle tunnels in snags.

Leave areas next to fields untilled and unsprayed to support flowering plants and provide nest sites for ground-nesting bees.

Cover Crops are great sources of flowering plants that can supply an abundance of pollen and nectar.

If feasible in your operation you can leave even small areas of fallow or unproductive land, especially when sown with native flowers, can offer important resources for many pollinators.

As you think about pollinators on your farm and property consider the following questions:

• Why pollinators are important to your location?

• Who are the pollinators in your area?

• How can I attract and utilize them on my farm?

• How can I protecting pollinators on my farm?

To learn more about pollinators and pollinator plants, consult these resources:

• The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation: xerces.org

• Pollinator Partnership: pollinator.org

• The Ohio State University Bee Lab: beelab.osu.edu

Tony Nye is the state coordinator for the Ohio State University Extension Small Farm Program and has been an OSU Extension Educator for agriculture and natural resources for 29 years, currently serving Clinton County and the Miami Valley EERA.