by Kristi Vitelli
At the end of May last year, during the height of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, my husband, daughter and I traveled from Glastonbury to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. This trip was unavoidable because we needed to retrieve my daughter’s belongings from her college apartment. She had come home in early March for winter break her senior year and never returned to college because the university closed, and all classes were moved online. We waited until the last minute when the lease was up on the apartment to make the trip since we knew that New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania were basically shut down and we would have to make the five-hour trip each way without stopping for food and gas. Although we had made the trip many times in the previous four years, I was scared to think about what would happen if we needed to stop and there was no place to do so.
It is unlikely that I will ever be in that situation again, however there are thousands of little pollinators that take long road trips every year not knowing if there will be anyplace to stop for food or water on the trip. In the past, the movement of pollinators was relatively routine with plenty of wildflowers, including milkweed for Monarch butterflies, and fresh water available along the paths they traveled. However, as native vegetation was replaced by roadways and crop fields, pollinators lost the food sources and nesting sites they relied upon. Additionally, the demand for more and bigger houses surrounded by acres of lawn and the proliferation of pesticides sprayed on the turf to keep it looking perfect, have made foraging and migration of pollinators a risky and often deadly experience.
If the distance between plants that provide nutrition is too far, or the plants that can provide nutrients are sprayed with pesticide, the pollinators will not be able to make the trip and die. Historic museum collections of insects, compared with present-day collections, show that both insect diversity and abundance has decreased. Species of bees like the rusty patched bumblebee, can no longer be found in the Northeast and are now on the endangered species list.
While experts cannot point to one reason why pollinator numbers have declined, the declines have occurred simultaneously with the increased use of neonicotinoid pesticides. Imagine driving to your local grocery store and suddenly feeling hopelessly lost. You don’t know where you are or where to go. Finding the grocery store is no longer a possibility. The way home is a mystery. This is the effect that toxic neonicotinoids have on bees.
Neonicotinoids, which are nerve agents, poison the nervous systems of bees. These pesticides which are highly toxic to bees and other pollinators pervade plant nectar and pollen. Exposure to highly toxic pesticides in nectar and pollen interferes with the internal radar of bees, preventing them from foraging and returning safely to their hives. Some studies have shown that neonicotinoids even impair a bee’s ability to learn, reproduce and fight infections.
Neonicotinoids are considered a major contributor to colony collapse disorder, wiping out over 10 million beehives since 2006. These large-scale bee deaths threaten our entire ecosystem including over 250,000 species of flowering plants and trees which rely on the pollination of bees.Other factors contributing to the decrease in bee populations are viruses, fungal infections, and other pathogens, which can cross over from honeybees to bumblebees. Butterfly decline has been linked to the disappearance of host plants for caterpillars due to the loss and fragmentation of habitat or changes in farming practices. Some butterfly caterpillars only feed on specific plants. The Monarch butterfly caterpillar, for example, is totally dependent on milkweed, which is not typically planted in yards and is often eradicated by farmers.
In response to these dire circumstances a new movement has arisen. In a growing number of Connecticut communities alongside historic homes, large estates, and manicured lawns, stand meadows with tall, weedy-looking flowers in the place of neat rows of annuals. The leaders of this movement, known as the Pollinator Pathway, are three women from Wilton, Connecticut, Donna Merrill, Louise Washer, and Jackie Algon. They and other volunteers have spearheaded the removal of non-native invasive plants such as Japanese knotweed and Asian bittersweet and in their place planted native plants, such as silky willow, pussy willow, ostrich fern, Solomon’s seal, false indigo, goldenrod, and aster providing a habitat for bees, butterflies, and other pollinators.
Louise Washer, when interviewed for an article for the Northern Woodlands published in May of 2020, by Susan Shea, explained that it is all about changing people’s aesthetics. The goal is to help landowners think differently about the outdated lawn paradigm by reimagining the dramatic impact of flowers. By growing flowers instead of turf, the perception of beauty from a chemically laden lawn mowed to perfection is transformed to an array of flowers that bloom from spring until frost providing a habitat for pollinators.
In Glastonbury, a yard with a neatly trimmed lawn is considered to be optimal and homeowners worry that planting wildflowers that look messy will result in a backlash from neighbors. However, the hard truth is that this mindset is killing our pollinators. It is time to consider a new aesthetic not dependent on chronic mowing which pollutes our air and turns our yards into dead zones for wildlife.
The Pollinator Pathway group has embraced the teachings of Doug Tallamy, a professor of entomology and wildlife ecology at the University of Delaware, an expert on pollinators and author of Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens (2007), who explains that because 85 percent of the United States is privately owned, we need to redesign residential landscapes to support diverse pollinators and complex food webs, store carbon, and protect water quality. He advocates planting half the area now dedicated to lawn with diverse mixes of native woody and herbaceous plants. Furthermore, as part of this plan it is important to learn how to avoid using fertilizers and pesticides which pollute our water sources and threaten the health of our children and pets.
By planting native flowers, you can help alleviate the fragmentation of food and water needed by pollinators to survive. Flowers will attract bees and butterflies while foraging and migrating. If you are afraid of or allergic to bees then make sure you plant only native flowers which will attract bees that are native to Connecticut. The bees which are native to Connecticut are not aggressive and have no interest in stinging you. Except for the bumblebee, they are solitary creatures with no hive to defend. Only female native bees have the possibility of stinging you and twenty-five percent of these female bees have a stinger that is so ineffective that it cannot penetrate the human skin. If you accidentally squish a female bee native to Connecticut and are stung, there is no known allergic reaction in humans.
The Pollinator Pathway group has found that Connecticut landowners are reluctant to stop using pesticides because of a fear of ticks, especially since Connecticut is where Lyme disease was first identified. Despite this reluctance, their message is simple, you must spray yourself and then check for ticks. To help rid your yard of ticks, the group provides tips on landscaping to reduce tick habitat, as well as information on new biological controls for ticks and tick boxes (bait boxes for rodents that apply a small dose of insecticide).
Creating a healthy Pollinator Pathway for the pollinators is important, but is not the only focus of the group. Bees, wasps, butterflies, moths, flies, and other insects that bring life to our meadows and gardens are also food for birds, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and other creatures. Many pollinators rely on trees and woodland groundcover as nesting, larval, and pupating habitat. Butterfly and moth caterpillars are a mainstay for numerous bird species throughout the Northeast and are essential during the breeding season and while raising young.
Swapping ornamental and invasive plants for natives and going organic with your land care are great first steps, but even managing our yards organically in conventional ways can still create imbalances. For instance, bagging leaves for removal and laying mulch should be minimized. Resist the urge to remove all of the leaves since dead leaves provide nutrients for overwintering pupae, other beneficial insects and fungi. Mulching is necessary to hold in moisture, but doing so prevents our native solitary bees from successfully nesting in the soil. By foregoing the mulch, and spreading leaves unevenly like what happens naturally by the wind, you keep the protective benefits to the soil, while making nutrient amendments unnecessary and allowing soil access for ground nesting insects.
If you are interested in joining the movement to provide a pathway for safe travels for pollinators in Connecticut, please visit pollinator-pathway.org. There is a wealth of information about how to transform your yard into a five-star rest-stop on the Pollinator Pathway. The Hill and Dale Garden Club will be hosting a Zoom presentation by Louise Washer, a founder of the Pollinator Pathway in Connecticut, on February 11th at 11:00 a.m. For more information, go to www.hillanddalect.org. Plus, a local coalition of environment groups in Glastonbury, including the TALK Environment Committee, the Environment Group at First Church and numerous local garden clubs have come together to work on ways to encourage residents, businesses and the town of Glastonbury to join the Pollinator Pathway by providing nutritional native plants, water and nesting areas in the place of ornamental plants, turf grass and invasive species. If you are interested in joining the coalition, please contact Tracy Kavanaugh at lilypadprints@gmail.com or Lisa Eldridge at reldridge2@yahoo.com for more information.
*This article was published before the Green on the Corner series