 So, I'm going to share some tips on how we can support pollinators in our landscapes. And to start off with, I just want to introduce the topic by saying that pollinators are very important to nature and wildlife and also the human diet. And pollinators such as honey bees are vital for our U.S. agriculture industry and economy. They pollinate a variety of crops, which include apples, blueberries, oranges, and almonds, just to name a few. And in urban landscapes, many flowering native plants, which are key food sources for pollinators, have been replaced by houses, roads, lawns, and whatnot. So there are some definite ways that we can try to help support pollinators in our landscape. By supporting pollinators in our landscape, we're helping to support honey bee populations. We're also providing shelter and food for native bees and other pollinators. And I will be using the word native a lot. I should probably define that. Native means that whether it's a pollinator species or a plant, that particular species is originates from a specific area or region and is adapted to that area's climate, soil types, those types of things. And so when possible, we want to grow native plants to support the native pollinator population. So that's what I mean when I say native. So also supporting pollinators in our landscape can ensure good pollination for our fruits and vegetables that we might grow in our backyards. We can also see an increase in yields and in some cases, depending on the fruit or vegetable, a larger fruit or vegetable. And then additionally, supporting pollinators in our landscape provides some seasonal, long beauty and diversity as well as focal points and other interests. So today's talk, we're going to define what a pollinator is. We'll introduce some different types of pollinators, and then we'll talk about the importance of pollinators and some ways that we can support pollinators. And so to start off with just a simple diagram of a flower and the flower parts, you don't necessarily need to know all of the flower parts, but just put the diagram up there so that as I'm talking, you have something to reference the different parts. So pollinators can be anything that helps to carry pollen from the male part of the flower, which is the stamen, and it carries it to the female part of the same or another flower, the stigma. So the female part of the plant is called the stigma, the male part is called the stamen. And some plants actually have both male and female flowers on them. Cucumbers is an example. When cucumbers set their first blossoms, typically those first blossoms are male flowers, and therefore they will not set fruit. So it's usually the second flush of blossoms that produces our fruit or our cucumber. Some flowers just have male flowers or some plants just have male flowers and some plants just have female flowers. And so then it requires a pollinator to transfer the pollen from the male flower to the female flower. It results in pollination. Pollination can happen either intentionally or incidentally. For example, some animals such as many bees intentionally collect pollen, while others such as many butterflies and birds move pollen incidentally because the pollen just sticks on their body while they're collecting nectar from the flowers. And that's how it gets dispersed. There's also direct and indirect pollination, and I'll talk about that on the next slide. But I want to point out that many of our fruits and vegetables do require insects to carry the pollen from one plant to another. So keep that in mind as we continue with the presentation today. So when we're talking about direct and indirect pollination, some crops are pollinated by pollinators, some crops are wind pollinated. In the United States, honeybees perform much of our insect pollination, but there are help from other pollinators, which we'll talk about in a little bit. And so honeybees, therefore, are vital to our agriculture industry and our economy, and they pollinate a variety of popular crops, which you'll see on the left hand of your screen. The cereal grains, which are on the right side, like wheat, corn, and rice, which happens to make up the largest part of the world's diet, they don't need pollinators. This is because the crops on the right, cereal crops on the right, are wind pollinated. And soybeans are also wind pollinated crops. Honeybees are probably our most well-known pollinators, and North Dakota happens to be the number one honey-producing state in the United States. In 2018, according to the North Dakota Department of Ag, we produced 38 million pounds of honey, valued at roughly $71 million. And according to a variety of different sources, pollinators are generally responsible for one in every three bites of food that we eat. This includes 120 different crops, which are mainly fruits, vegetables, and nuts. And pollinators contribute approximately $15 to $20 billion in U.S. crops, or they contribute to the crop because of their pollinating efforts. One specific crop that absolutely needs pollinators to achieve pollination is almonds. Some of our other crops, like berries, maybe need a pollinator, but maybe not. Some you have to have two different types of cultivars, and that requires a pollinator to transfer pollen from one to the other. There's also berry species, like raspberries, that the more of the female parts that are pollinated, the better quality the raspberry will be, so the less mushy it might be. So thinking back to pollinators and pollination, and you can use your chat box for this one. Maybe what are some other pollinators that you can think of? And Julie, I'll rely on you to monitor the chat box. I'm seeing butterflies, hummingbirds, bats, flies, moths, mason bee. Oh, good. How are they doing? Very good. Very good. And I'm especially excited to hear that someone mentioned a mason bee because mason bees are one of our North Dakota's native pollinator bees. They're generally somewhat solitary, so very excited to hear about that. We won't be covering all of the different species of native pollinators, but we'll just be giving an overview. So very pleased to see that wide range. There's more. Cool. Just like humans, beetles, and ants. Good. You guys are awesome. I hardly have to read my list off. Did anyone say rodents? I don't think so. So rodents can be pollinators, too. There are specific flowers that rodents populate or pollinate. And a fun fact, the world's largest pollinator lives in Madagascar and happens to be the lemur. The lemurs pollinate a tall species of palm tree called the traveler palms. And so when they go and get the nectar from those flowers, they spread it to the next tree and help to pollinate those trees. So depending on what you consider large, because technically humans could be pollinators inadvertently too, but the lemur is the largest intentional pollinator. So just a fun fact. As we talk about some of these pollinators, bumblebees actually happen to be one of our native pollinators along with other solitary bees like the mason bee, leaf cutter bees. And I do want to point out that bees are not to be feared. They are generally very docile and don't attack people on purpose. It is wasps and hornets that are more aggressive, especially in the latter part of summer when their food sources are getting short. But when we talk about wasps as pollinators, there are tiny, what we'll call parasitic wasps that are beneficial insects. Those can also be pollinators too. And there are little tiny flies, hover flies and wheat mid, or midge flies, I'm referring to wheat midge because I work a lot with the egg industry and so we monitor wheat midge populations. That happens to be a pest, but there are various midges that are basically tiny little flies that function as pollinators as well. So when we think about some of these pollinators, they can be attracted to different kinds and types of flowers. And so that is important to be somewhat familiar with as we're designing our landscape. For example, butterflies, they tend to be attracted to bright red and purple flowers that have faint but yet fresh odors. Bees are attracted or tend to be attracted to white, yellow or blue flowers that have contrasting ultraviolet patterns and generally have a mild or pleasant odor. There is a special tiny bee that is attracted to the vanilla plant and actually is the only kind of bee that is able to pollinate that. And they have done some trials with, well right now most of the vanilla is hand pollinated but it's a lengthy process and so they are working on ways to get the vanilla orchid to be able to be pollinated by other species other than this tiny bee. Excuse me. Hummingbirds, which I'm sure a lot of you are familiar with, tend to be attracted to scarlet colors, oranges, reds and white, especially tubular shaped flowers with no distinct odors. Moths, which tend to be most active at night. There is an exception, the acumon sphinx moth is active during the day. That is also known as our hummingbird moth because it can look or when it moves quickly, it sounds and looks like a hummingbird because it does have a very long pervascus as well. That's the feeding part. But moths, they tend to be attracted to pale reds, purples, pinks and white flowers that give off a strong sweet odor at night. To me I would think of petunias, they tend to have a strong sweet odor. Beetles like soldier beetles and other beetles are attracted to white or green flowers with odors that range from none to strongly fruity or foul. And flies like the tiny hoverfly, they tend to be attracted to green, white or cream flowers with little odor or dark brown and purple flowers that have putrid odors. The cocoa plant happens to be pollinated by a tiny fly called a midge. So I just wanted to throw that out as a fun fact. Bats, which are also primarily active at night, they are attracted to dull white, green or purple flowers that give off strong and musty odors at night. If you like alcohol, like tequila, bats are responsible for pollinating the agave plants that make tequila. Bats also produce one of my favorite fruits or pollinate one of my favorite fruits, bananas. I'm not a fan of mangoes, but they do pollinate mangoes and guava as well. So if anyone likes those types of fruits, that's where bats can be beneficial as well. And going back to our native pollinators, there are more than 4,000 native bee species in North America. And according to T.J. Prashka, who is our area extension specialist in crop protection up here at the North Central Research Station in Minot, there are more than 250 solitary bees in North Dakota. And he will actually be sharing more on conserving solitary bees on April 16th during the NDSU Spring Fever Garden Forum. So pollinator decline is happening in both managed and wild pollinators. Managed pollinators would be our honeybees because they are they are here during the summertime and then they are wintered in warmer states down south, maybe Florida, California, those types of places. But both managed and wild pollinators are facing similar stressors such as habitat loss. We're starting to see alternate land uses interfering with overwintering, foraging, and nesting sites of our pollinators. As I mentioned before, urban areas are replacing some of these habitats. Nutrition is also another stressor. The specific plants needed for nutrition and habitat are being replaced or declining. And these native pollinators do need these specific plants for their various life stages. The monarch is a good example. Milkweed is specifically needed for the larval stage of the monarch. Climate change is also a stressor for our pollinators. And how this affects them is that as we start to see climate change, more flowering plants might be starting to occur farther north than than usual or at higher elevations, which can cause food sources to become out of sync with our pollinator life cycles and migration. We're also starting to see parasites and diseases. We've heard a lot about honeybee diseases, colony collapse disorders, those kinds of things. And as we're seeing right now with COVID, our world is is much more mobile. And so with more travel and commerce allows the extensive transfer of parasites and diseases. And our pollinators are no exception. And so these non-native parasites and diseases can infect our native species and cause decline. The last stressor that all of our pollinators struggle with or face are pesticides. And these can be herbicides, which are pesticides designed to kill weeds, insecticides, and fungicides. Insecticides kill insects, fungicides kill fungus. And some of this pesticide damage can be from use in the environment or it can actually happen when our beekeepers are trying to keep our bees healthy. For example, with the mites that affect honeybees. There are pesticides that they can use to help protect the honeybees but at the same time those can be damaging to the honeybees. And so the other way that pesticides can harm our pollinators is by killing important forage plants that the pollinators need for nutrition. And we'll talk a little bit more about this but dandelions is a good example of a weed or what some might call a weed being controlled by a pesticide. Dandelions actually provide really good early season forage for our native bees. So honeybee problems this is just a little bit of a summary from the previous slide but a little more detail on on the honeybee problems. And again more than a third of the world's crop species such as alfalfa, sunflower, and numerous fruits and vegetables and seeds depend on bee pollination, particularly honeybees. They are plagued by the Varroa mites. There are some diseases as well. The Israeli acute paralysis virus is an important virus that has been indicated in colony collapse disorder. And that disease has probably been an introduced disease from bees brought in from other countries or different species of bees. And then also with our honeybees we tend to see some migratory stress since our honeybees are wintered in southern states like California and Florida we see that migratory stress. The transportation of these bees across the country for pollination purposes and frequent moves cause high levels of stress. And as we know from ourselves when we're under a lot of stress our immune systems don't function as they should. Additionally poor nutrition is attributed to some of our honeybee problems and part of that is are the monocultures that honeybees are being asked to feed upon. Just like us as humans we need a diet that has a wide range of nutrients and vitamins and minerals. And so bees and other pollinators also need a mixed pollen diet rather than a single pollen source. In some reviews of bee problems bees feeding on monoculture crops have been likened to humans only eating sardines or chocolate or parsnips for a whole month at a time. So you can imagine how you might feel even though you may be a huge chocolate lover how you might feel after a whole month of eating nothing but chocolate. And then pesticides. Neonicotinoids are the main pesticide of concern which is an insecticide. And so folks are trying to reduce the use of this particular pesticide because it can linger in the plants and as the bees feed upon the pollen and the nectar they can become exposed to it. And because of all these different things combined not just one one particular item beekeepers are losing about a third of their hives per year. So it's it's becoming a growing problem and as you can see it's it's not linked to just one particular stressor. So just a visual to demonstrate the importance of pollinators and bees specifically. This slide is from Dr. Esther McGinnis. She's our NDSU Extension Specialist and Associate Professor in Horticulture. She's also my graduate school advisor and I borrowed this slide from her because it gives a good depiction of what might make up some traditional breakfast foods. We've got some fruits and we've got coffee, milk, bacon, eggs, some greens. And so in the next slide we'll see what a breakfast looks like without bees or without pollinators. And so you can see that it looks pretty plain and pretty bland without those fruits. And for those that are coffee lovers we even lose the coffee. And if we think about how pollinators whether they directly pollinate our foods or whether they're somehow involved in the process we can probably even take milk out. Because even though our dairy cows do eat a fair amount of grains and when pollinated feed sources they also have a large part of their diet is made up of hay specifically alfalfa which does need bees for pollination. So depending on how we look at pollination we can probably take milk off the menu too if we don't have bees and other pollinators. So how can you help? One of the popular initiatives these days is to build a pollinator garden. And NDSU Extension has a pollinator program through our Master Gardener program. Folks can actually go online and if you just search in search NDSU Extension Master Gardener pollinator garden you can find more information information about building a pollinator garden and also about becoming a certified pollinator garden. And so the picture to the right is actually our pollinator garden that we have here in Pierce County. Our Pierce County Soil Conservation District graciously allowed us to place it on their property. So building a pollinator garden is a great way to help pollinators and planting other nectar and pollen producing plant that bloom season long is another great way. And also creating a pollinator friendly lawn and yard is another great way to help support pollinators and we'll talk a little bit more about each of these as we go forward. When we're supporting pollinators in our landscape we need to think about their four basic needs. They are essentially just like we are. One of their basic needs is food and their food source happens to be nectar and or pollen. If it's a bee usually pollen is involved. They also need a source of water and they need some type of shelter primarily for nesting and and just escaping predators. And then their fourth need is the sustainable use of pesticides. And we'll refer to that as integrated pest management because it's a it's a whole system of looking at our pesticide use. These next few slides are are going to focus primarily on tips if we were going to be building a pollinator garden but can certainly work for adding any types of plants to our landscape. So if we're building a pollinator garden we can select plants or we should select plants that bloom from early spring. So coming up you know the end of April early May all the way into late fall probably late September early October. And usually we want to have at least 10 to 20 species and we should include as many native plants as we can. And it is okay to include some non-natives. Those can be beneficial in the landscape as well and beneficial to pollinators. We do want to be careful with some of our non-natives especially some of the cultivars. A good example would be the double blossomed flowers sometimes in the genetic selection of those. Some of the reproductive parts can be lost or some of their nectar producing capabilities are lost and so even though they're pretty they may not provide the nutrition that our pollinators need. And when we are mixing non-natives with our natives generally we want to follow the 6040 rule. So 60 native and 40 no more than 40 non-native. And then when we're planting our food sources for our pollinators we also want to try to plant in drifts or clumps of three to five per species. And the reason for this is to help our pollinators find and use them. Essentially they become a landing zone. And another reason that we plant them in clumps is because some of our pollinators don't have a tremendous energy reserve and so if those plants are a little bit closer together it helps them to conserve energy as they're foraging. And we want to make sure that the natives that we're choosing are adapted to our local climate soil and our native pollinators. Here in my particular area up in north central North Dakota we are in the zone three reliably zone three. We may be able to get some zone four plants to survive if they have enough winter protection. So definitely match your plants to your growing zone. A couple other things to consider that I didn't put on the slide because it would have just been too much text. But since we do have some pollinators that are out at night try to include some night blooming flowers that would support our moths and possibly bats. Some examples of night bloomers and most of these are annuals would be moonflower. They smell really wonderful at night. They're kind of they're kind of a climbing vining plant almost like a morning glory. And they do bloom white but they can look really pretty in the moonlight and they smell delicious. Another annual is night flocks. Nicotiana is another annual. And then also another fun one kind of an old-fashioned garden favorite is four o'clock. Those tend to start blooming in the afternoon and last into the evening. And then perennial would be evening primrose which is supposed to be hardy for zones three through eleven. So definitely add some night blooming flowers in your variety. And then another thing to consider is to vary the sizes of the plant to accommodate some of our tiny solitary predators or I'm sorry pollinators. Some examples of plants that would have smaller flowers or blossoms to accommodate these tiny pollinators would be feces from the mint family. Also plants from the carrot family such as dill or one of our native plants golden Alexander. Golden Alexander kind of resembles dill in its blossoming. And since you're probably wondering what all of these plants look like because I did not show pictures if you get a chance I did post the link but you can also google beautiful landscapes building a pollinator garden. This is one of our NDSU extension publications and there is a chart of our native plants by season so that can give you some ideas and there are pictures in there. And then sources of native plants. The first thing would be to check with your local nursery because they will be the best source to be able to get native plants that can grow for your particular location. Some alternative sources. You can google the prairie moon nursery prairie restorations and morning sky. And these also have catalogs available if you're like me and you like to flip through a catalog versus scrolling through an online catalog. You may be able to request a catalog from these and that will also give you some good ideas of what these plants look like. And on a dreary day while it's dreary here so on a dreary day like today flipping through a plant catalog can bring great joy. Some other food sources besides plants to consider would be putting cut fruit out for our butterflies and bees and then also a hummingbird feeder. The cut fruit and the hummingbird solution or hummingbird feeder solution serves as an energy source. The sugars in those two items serve as an energy source. That's essentially what these pollinators are acquiring from the pollinator plants when they're feeding on the nectar. And I should have posted a recipe. I'm sure there will be questions about hummingbird feeder recipes and I can answer this in more detail later but just a quick overview. It's generally a one to four solution of sugar and water. It is recommended only to use refined sugar over other sweeteners such as honey or brown sugar. And the reason for this is some of the other sweeteners can contain fungus or develop molds that can be harmful to the hummingbirds. And so a simple recipe for a hummingbird feeder solution is just one fourth of cup sugar, one cup boiling water, and then you just dissolve the sugar in the water, let it cool down, and put it into your hummingbird feeder. There's no need for the red dye. Some of the chemicals in the dye can be harmful to the hummingbirds and then also make sure with your hummingbird feeder that if it's hot that you're emptying and cleaning it at least two times per week. And when you clean it, make sure that you are cleaning it with hot tap water or a very weak vinegar solution. We want to avoid using dish soaps because they can leave some residues that can be harmful to our hummingbirds. And then every time that the hummingbird feeder is empty, especially in a period of heavy feeding, go ahead and clean it before you refill it. I'm not sure what I did, Julie. There we go. I clicked on the link. I'm sorry about that. Okay, good. So our next need for pollinators is a water source and we have a variety of ways that we can get water for our pollinators. On the right hand side I have a super simple way where you can take the saucer of a plant container and just fill it with some glass or some colored beads or pebbles or rocks and then put water in it. And the purpose of that is that the pollinators will then have a landing spot so they don't drown in the water. So the other water sources on the left hand side, like the bird bath and the fountain or ponds, we do want to make sure that we have something in them that the pollinators can land on. So some type of landing platform. So for example, in a bird bath we might just float a piece of wood in the bird bath so that our bees and butterflies can land on them and not drown. They will drink from the edges but sometimes they can fall in. I know when I've changed my bird bath I've sometimes found casualties. Sometimes they get in there. The other thing with our bird baths and our bodies of water, even the saucer on the right with the water in it, we do want to try and change that water frequently. This benefits both the birds and the bees. No pun intended. And it just, because it decreases the chance for molds and funguses and bacteria to grow that could stick in them. And also it decreases the mosquito breeding grounds so that we have less mosquitoes in our yard. The third need for pollinators is shelter. And this is both for safety and for nesting. With our native bees we have what we call cavity nesting bees and ground nesting bees. A lot of our native solitary bees are ground nesters. And one of the most fun ones that I've come across is they're called sweat bees or metallic bees. They have a bright iridescent green color and they're about the size of a house fly and they burrow in the ground. They are a ground nesting bee. They're very, very docile. They will come and they will land on your on your skin and that's probably why they've gotten their nicknamed sweat bees. Because they like the salty flavor of our our skin from our sweat. So we want to have some bee houses which I've pictured or posted a picture of an example on the right. You want to have various size holes because our native bees are varying sizes and so some have different preferences. And you'll notice on the top of the the peak of the bee house there are some wood chips in there and then in the bottom behind the chicken wire are pine cones. And so some of our native pollinators prefer those sources for nesting as well. We also want to save some bare ground. If we're building a pollinator garden we want to try not to cover all of it up with mulch or fabric. We want to leave a little bit of bare ground for our ground nesting bees. Dead trees also provide although they can be an eyesore. They provide a nice habitat for our cavity nesting natives native pollinators. Something that I've done in my yard if I've had a dead tree is I've cut it up into a big log and used it as a decorative focal piece in my flower beds for some of these native pollinators. So it can be a matter of just getting creative. Also bundles of hollow stems like those of sunflowers are preferred by some cavity nest nesters. And then one thing that can be hard for some gardeners is to resist the urge to cut down our perennials in the fall. Because there are some of our native pollinators that will nest in those hollow stems. And if we can resist the urge to cut them down in the fall the next thing is to resist the urge to not cut them down too soon in the springtime either. Generally the rule of thumb is if you've left them up over the fall leave them standing until you see the first bumblebee in the landscape in the spring. Fun fact is that 70 percent of bees live in nests below ground. And the other 30 percent of bees live in cavities such as plant stems or holes bored in trees by woodpeckers or beetle larvae. Some bees can hollow out or core out wood themselves others cannot. So they'll lay their eggs in hollow stems or nest in them. Some other creative ways to provide shelter in your landscape would be a rustic arbor or bench made from some kind of natural untreated wood. Split rail fence I myself happen to be keen on split rail fences. We can do some neat things with those. The main thing is just to provide a variety of different structure types for our natives. And the fourth need for our pollinators is sustainable pesticide use. And by sustainable pesticide use we're able to still use pesticides we just have to use them responsibly. And when we're using integrated pest management we're combining a variety of different techniques. We're combining cultural physical barriers all of those kinds of things natural pests natural enemies before we're employing the use of a pesticide. And we do that so that we can try to minimize the effects of pesticide use on humans and the environment. So when we're sustainably using a pesticide the number one thing that we want to do whether we're trying to control weeds or insects or some other kind of pest is to identify the pest and make sure that we've identified it correctly. Next we want to determine if control measures are actually needed. So is the problem severe enough to warrant a treatment or in the case of maybe vegetable production or an agronomic other agronomic crop is the expected loss from the pest acceptable or does it cost less than controlling a treatment or does it cost less than control treatment if it costs less than the control the treatment may not be needed is what i'm trying to say. And third we don't want to use a pesticide unless there's a definite reason to do so. So in some cases the problem might take care of itself naturally by predatory insects or a change in weather when we in in the springtime that's a nice example it might be nice and warm things are starting to get active and then all of a sudden we get a cool spell and that can be one of those natural events that can decline a pest problem. Grasshoppers don't like cool wet weather so if we have a cool wet spring we may have a decrease in our grasshopper population which might be a good thing. Predatory insects we have ladybugs and lace wings they might take care of some of our aphid problems for us without having to apply a pesticide. So using the beneficial insects to help us keep pest populations down is a big part of integrated pest management and sustainable pesticide use. And then the other thing to remember is that pesticides seldom discriminate. If we're using a pesticide like an insecticide it's going to kill the good bugs along with the bad. When I get calls in the office and I get a lot of them the number one thing people want to know is what can they spray to kill a particular pest on a particular plant in their landscape. And so the first thing that I go over with them is this point that whether they're spraying whether they're targeting the bad insect they're still going to be killing the good. And so then we back up to the second point or the third point where we don't want to use a pesticide unless there's a definite need to do so. So is the damage that that pest is going to cause warranting the use of a pesticide? And then number six is to make sure that the pest is present. Naturally we've identified it but we also want to make sure that it's in a vulnerable stage before we're treating it. Some pests, insect pests once they get to a certain size aren't as vulnerable to the pesticide. Weeds are another great example. Once they get bigger than three to four inches they're harder to kill and can become more resistant. And then the last point in using pesticides responsibly or incorporating integrated pest management is that we want to choose the right pesticide. We want to make sure both the pest and the plant that we're treating are on the label because the label is the law and we have to follow the label requirements. And then since we're talking about the label we do want to make sure that we look at the label and pay attention to any safety precautions, mixing instructions, special application instructions, personal protective equipment that might be needed to apply that that particular pesticide. So with some special considerations for pollinators regarding pesticide use, we only want to apply pesticides of course when we need to but if we are going to have to make a pesticide application we only want to do it when pollinators are inactive. And our bees and other pollinators typically are active and foraging during periods of high temperature and sunlight. So we don't want to be spraying our pesticides during that key peak of the day. So we might be spraying in the early morning or in the early evening hours to avoid our pollinator foraging times. Also high temperatures can cause some pesticides to vaporize which can increase the potential for pollinator or off-target plant injury. So we want to examine the area that we're going to be applying a pesticide to and if there are bees or other pollinators actively foraging on the flowering weeds or plants we want to postpone that pesticide application until they're no longer foraging. We also want to be cognizant of residual activity of pesticide. This is an important factor in determining safety to pollinators. Generally the shorter the re-entry interval listed on the label that means the less residual activity. So the shorter the re-entry interval generally means a shorter residual activity period or less persistence. We also want to try to minimize drift to non-target plants or plants that bees might forage on. And generally applications should not be made if wind speeds exceed 10 miles per hour or are blowing towards adjacent flowering plants. And then we also want to choose the lowest toxicity possible and that will generally be indicated on the label. There will be signal words such as caution, warning, danger. They give a general idea of toxicity level. Caution is the lowest toxicity level and danger being the highest toxicity level. Also I do want to point out that some of our organic and natural pesticides do not necessarily mean non-toxic pollinators. Some of our organics and naturals can be just as toxic as our synthetic pesticides. So some other things to consider when we're thinking about supporting pollinators in our landscape is to consider the use of trees. And flowering trees can be a very important source of pollen and nectar for our pollinators especially in the springtime. This is usually when our tired and overwintered bees and other native pollinators are emerging and they need that immediate source of nutrition and sustenance. Maples and willows are notable trees that provide an early supply of food. Apples and cherries tend to bloom a little bit later but they provide beautiful blossoms and very good food as well. The other neat thing about trees besides providing an early supply of food for our pollinators is that they provide a large amount of food at one time when the full tree is blooming. American basswood or linden is one of the best nectar producers that we have aside from our fruit trees of course. It will attract many bees and other pollinators. I've put a picture here of the American linden or American basswood and then also in the side a picture of the blossoms. They actually smell really good too and if you're fortunate to see one in bloom there will generally be a lot of bees and pollinators around it. If you have a small yard, trees might be an option for you to be able to maximize the amount of pollinator food that you can provide if you don't have enough space to incorporate a pollinator garden. Another way that we can support pollinators in our urban landscapes is by creating a pollinator friendly lawn and we can do this in a number of different ways. We can intentionally reduce the size of our lawn maybe turning some of it into a pollinator garden or a habitat for pollinators. We can also cut down on our mowing maybe mow every other week and allow the grass to grow up to three inches or higher. Some of our lawn grasses will produce seed heads that will attract grass pollinators. Also we want to try to rethink our ideal of the perfect lawn and maybe allow some low-growing flowering plants or as some might call them weeds to grow because these can be especially valuable nutrition and forage for our pollinators as well. Dandelions, I mentioned them before, they are an excellent early season source of nutrition for our native pollinators. Also there are some low-growing clovers. You may have clover, white clover growing in your lawn that you've been trying to get rid of for years. Go ahead and let it grow because that is actually a really good source of nutrition for our pollinators as well. Additionally the clover can decrease our fertilizer needs in our lawn so it can decrease the nitrogen needs as it is a legume. That in turn can help us to cut down on some of our fertilizer use in our lawn if we're after that lush green lawn which may help us to support our pollinators and I have to sneeze I'm sorry. Excuse me, I'm talking about fertilizer and fertilizers always make me sneeze. Another thing that we can do with our lawn and this relates to allowing those flowering plants or as some like to call them weeds to grow rather than using a pesticide. So those are a couple ways that we can cut down on on some of the chemical use in our our lawns. Another option is to leave an area of the lawn as a nomo zone as suggested in the image to the right and you can see in the background there are dandelions that have grown in the in the lawn and been allowed to go to seed. Another option that seems to be gaining some popularity is the what they call nomo fescue lawns. They're they're really maybe it's maybe a little misleading because I don't think they're truly nomo but they need considerably less attention than our traditional Kentucky bluegrass and and other types of lawns. So those are some options for helping us to create a pollinator friendly lawn and I didn't include a slide for this but if you really have a small space you can also look into growing some pollinator friendly plants in containers on your porch or your balcony or whatever other small space that you have. And then to round this out I just want to remind everyone that in June we have our national pollinator week and so that would be hopefully a great time to start looking at extra ways that we can help the pollinators in our areas. There will be I'm sure lots of different activities nationwide that we can participate in and hopefully by then our current social distancing situation will be letting up some and and we can participate in some of those activities. And so with that I guess I will open it up to questions. Okay well thank you so much that was a great great webinar. So just a couple comments Kathy says our honey bees we see escapees and they'll die come winter and Shelley said generally honey bees have a hive somewhere they can range up to five miles to forage. Honey bees without a hive will die. So do you have any other commentary on that question or thought? I guess that I don't know enough about the the honey bees but generally yes they do require a hive and what I can share is that if you see a swarm of honey bees that generally means that they've gotten pushed out of their hive and are looking for a new hive and so the best thing to do in a situation like that is to call a local beekeeper and see if they will come take them. You can also look on if you don't know of a local beekeeper you can look on the North Dakota Department of Egg website and there is a listing a map listing of apiaries in the area. I should have maybe posted a slide of that but I already had a lot of talking points so I'm not sure if that answered your question. Well Shelley tells us and this is great to know she is a master beekeeper and she's taught honey beekeeping for four years so maybe sometime you can do a webinar for us Shelley. That would be wonderful. I have another question here or here's first to comment we have a huge basswood tree in our yard and Jennifer was glad to hear it's so beneficial and she hasn't smelled the blooms. We have a question from Erin what attracts wasps to the garden? Generally we if there's rotting fruit or some kind of other rubbish nearby that might attract them generally in the early part of the summer we won't see them a whole lot they'll become more active in the latter part of the summer as they begin foraging as their food sources get shorter and they start foraging to prepare for either overwintering or migrating. So it looks like we have a couple questions here. Shelley our beekeeper says the best time to manage wasps is in the spring when their populations are small using traps so thank you Shelley. Jeanie says I read that a native bee house needs to be six inches deep to produce healthy female bees and it needs to be completely cleaned every year. I don't know on the measurements I know they vary but I can say that yes they should be cleaned. Charlotte says she has an oregano plant growing in her herb garden and she noticed the bees are attractive to the flowers of the plant. Thank you I forgot to mention herbs yes herbs are a wonderful source for pollinators. Oregano, borage pretty much chives they love chives too so yes definitely incorporating herbs into your landscape is is a great source of food for our pollinators. Thank you for sharing. Oh and Jennifer I missed her question as I was going through she says she's sad to see how many bees get killed in pools. Do you know any products to put in a pool to help them float on? I don't know of any specifically but an idea that comes to mind might be pool noodles or those types of things. Does anyone else have any ideas on that? We have another question and I think we'll have to let everyone go since we're a little late but thank you for for answering all these. Lila asks are cat mints like walkers low good for pollinators? I'm not sure on the specific variety but yes the cat mint family is in the mint family and yes they are a pollinator species as well. And I'll add in a comment we just put some brand new herb guides. I'm a food and nutrition specialist so there's a lot of recipes as well as growing herbs and it's on the field to fork website. So sounds like we have some people growing herbs so you've got some new resources. Any last question? Oh here we go. Shelly says if the first water source a honeybee finds is a pool the hive will water there most frequently. Floating wood pool noodles etc work well so thank you Shelly. So you have some more options besides the pool noodles. Well with that I'm going to wrap up the webinar for today and I thank you all for your participation and very good job Yolanda and you brightened our day so thank you for doing this. Thank you.