Posts Tagged: Pollinators
Home is where the habitat is: This Earth Day, consider installing insectary plants.
Help the environment this Earth Day, which falls on Sunday April 22 this year, by installing insectary plants! These plants attract natural enemies such as lady beetles, lacewings, and parasitic wasps. Natural enemies provide biological pest control and can reduce the need for insecticides. Visit the new UC IPM Insectary Plants webpage to learn how to use these plants to your advantage.
The buzz about insectary plants
Biological control, or the use of natural enemies to reduce pests, is an important component of integrated pest management. Fields and orchards may miss out on this control if they do not offer sufficient habitat for natural enemies to thrive. Insectary plants (or insectaries) can change that—they feed and shelter these important insects and make the environment more favorable to them. For instance, sweet alyssum planted near lettuce fields encourages syrphid flies to lay their eggs on crops. More syrphid eggs means more syrphid larvae eating aphids, and perhaps a reduced need for insecticides. Similarly, planting cover crops like buckwheat within vineyards can attract predatory insects, spiders, and parasitic wasps, ultimately keeping leafhoppers and thrips under control.
Flowering insectaries also provide food for bees and other pollinators. There are both greater numbers and more kinds of native bees in fields with an insectary consisting of a row of native shrubs planted along the field edge (called a hedgerow). Native bees also stay in fields with these shrubs longer than they do in fields without them. Therefore, not only do insectaries attract natural enemies, but they can also boost crop pollination and help keep bees healthy.
Insectary plants may attract more pests to your crops, but the benefit is greater than the risk
The possibility of creating more pest problems has been a concern when it comes to installing insectaries. Current research shows that mature hedgerows, in particular, bring more benefits than risks. Hedgerows attract far more natural enemies than insect pests. And despite the fact that birds, rabbits, and mice find refuge in hedgerows, the presence of hedgerows neither increases animal pest problems in the field, nor crop contamination by animal-vectored pathogens. Hedgerow insectaries both benefit wildlife and help to control pests.
How can I install insectary plants?
Visit the Insectary Plants webpage to learn how to establish and manage insectary plants, and determine which types of insectaries may suit your needs and situation. If you need financial assistance to establish insectaries on your farm, consider applying for Conservation Action Plan funds from the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) offered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Sources:
- Flower flies (Syrphidae) and other biological control agents for aphids in vegetable crops. (PDF)
- Good news for hedgerows: no effects on food safety in the field.
- Hedgerow benefits align with food production and sustainability goals.
- Habitat restoration promotes pollinator persistence and colonization in intensively managed agriculture. (PDF)
- Reducing the abundance of leafhoppers and thrips in a northern California organic vineyard through maintenance of full season floral diversity with summer cover crops.
Why UC Davis Is the Place to 'Bee' on April 7
The University of California, Davis, is the place to "bee" on Saturday, April 7. There's a plant...
Honey bee nectaring on an aster. Many asters will be for sale at UC Davis on Saturday, April 7. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bee and yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii, sharing a coneflower. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Are You a Graduate Student Involved in Pollinator Research?
If you're a graduate student engaged in pollinator research, you may want to enter the Graduate...
Phillipp Brand, a graduate student in the Santiago Ramirez lab, UC Davis Department of Evolution and Ecology, and a member of the Population Biology Graduate Group, won the Graduate Student Research Poster competition last year. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The second-place award of $750 in the Graduate Student Research Poster competition last year went to Jacob Peters, Harvard University, for his “Self-Organization of Collective Nest Ventilation by Honey Bees.” (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The third-place winner of $500 in the Graduate Student Research Poster competition went to John Mola of UC Davis for his "Fire-Inducted Change in Flowering Phenology Benefits Bumble Bees." (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Who Doesn't Pine for Plants? And Pollinators!
Who doesn't pine for plants? And pollinators? The UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden is...
Chilean rock purslane, Calandrina grandiflora, is a favorite of pollinators, including this bee. Note the red pollen. This is one of the plants offered by the UC Davis Arboretum at its plant sale on Nov. 4. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Western tiger swallowtail, Papilio rutulus, nectaring a butterfly bush, Buddleia davidii. This is one of the plants for sale at the UC Davis Arboretum Teaching Nursery on Nov. 4. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A honey bee makes a beeline for a pomegranate blossom, a Punica granatum 'Wonderful.' This plant will be offered at the Arboretum plant sale on Nov. 4. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
UC Davis Arboretum Plant Sale: Think Pollinators!
Think bees. Think butterflies. Think plants that will attract them. The UC Davis Arboretum and...
A black-faced bumble bee, Bombus californicus, forages on Purple Ginny salvia (sage). Sages are popular at the UC Davis Arboretum Plant Sales.(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Western tiger swallowtail, Papilio rutulus, sips nectars from a butterfly bush, Buddleia davidii. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A pollen-packing honey bee heads for rock purslane, Calandrinia grandiflora. This is one of the plants available at the UC Davis Arboretum Plant Sale on Oct. 7. The plant yields red pollen. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)