National Pollinator Week is June 17-23, 2024

Pollinator Week is an annual celebration of pollinators. Raise awareness and work towards the conservation of this important group of animals by celebrating Pollinator Week! This annual celebration was initiated by the Pollinator Partnership, and fourteen years ago, the United States Senate voted to designate this week as “National Pollinator Week.” Pollinators are worthy of celebration for many reasons! Pollinators are crucial to our ecosystems’ health: between 75-95% of all flowering plants on earth rely on pollinators to reproduce. Pollinators are also key to much of our food production. Without pollinators, we wouldn’t enjoy many fruits, vegetables, spices, and nuts. You can thank a pollinator for every 1 out of every 3 bites of food! 

Thank a bat for your banana

When you think of pollinators, you might think of honey bees. Honey bees are important pollinators, but many other types of pollinators exist including wild bees, birds, bats, moths, butterflies, flies, and wasps. Even some small mammals and reptiles have been known to be pollinators. If you’re a fan of chocolate, you can thank fly pollinators. If your favorite fruits include bananas and mangos, thank a bat! Bees are considered some of the most important pollinators. In the United States, there are almost 4,000 species of native bees. They range in size, shape and color from large, fuzzy bumble bees to smaller metallic sweat bees. Most of our native bees are solitary, but bumble bees, sweat bees and honey bees are social and form colonies.

A skipper butterfly visiting a native Coreopsis flower. Planting native wildflowers in your backyard is a great way to support pollinators!

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Make a buzz for pollinator week

Here are a few ways you can celebrate pollinator week:

• Visit or volunteer in the Sanctuary’s native garden. You can help us maintain the garden for pollinators or help us monitor monarch caterpillars!
• Add some native plants, and create a habitat in your backyard. Many native pollinators prefer native wildflowers over ornamentals. Learn more here. 
• Think twice before applying pesticides. These are harmful to pollinators. 
• Document pollinator diversity in your backyard by participating in the Pollinator Week Bioblitz.
• Add a bee house to your backyard. 
• Check out this list for more activities celebrating pollinator week

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Alice Dykstra is a doctoral candidate in the Haddad Lab at the Kellogg Biological Station and a Science Education and Outreach fellow for the 2023-2024 academic year.