Pollinators. The classic “busy bees” of nature.
Without them, we have no fruit, no vegetables,
almost nothing on our tables. Without them we are up
the creek without a paddle.
When we consider pollinators, we usually think of
the honey bee, but pollinators include wasps,
butterflies, moths, beetles, birds, bats, and the
ordinary fly. Then there is the dreaded Africanized
bee and our own Costa Rican stingless bee. All happy
pollinators flying around trying to keep us and
themselves in food.
So the question is, how can you keep the pollinators
happy?
Here in Costa Rica, pollinators are busy year-round
– no slack time and no winter hibernations, just
flower to flower. Exhausting. To keep them all in
pollen, we have to have things in flower every day
all year long. Keeping them all well-fed and healthy
requires a lot of work.
Succession planting is one way to keep the
pollinators happy. Succession planting means
staggering your plantings or putting in plants with
different maturation dates. For pollinators, it
means having something flowering in the garden at
all times. This should not be a problem in Costa
Rica.
What is a problem here and worldwide, is finding a
pesticide that will not harm honeybees. While
concentrating on them, we do tend to forget other
pollinators because the honeybee does so much more
than pollinate. Honey, wax, royal jelly, they are
all products from this humble insect. So, how do we
rid ourselves of plant pests while preserving the
honeybee.
Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that
natural sprays, like neem oil and castile soap, and
even other pesticides should only be sprayed in the
very early morning and the late evening when the
honeybee is not yet active. The bees will not be
harmed by the sprays unless it touches them
directly. Second, try to avoid spraying the flowers.
Flowers, after all, are the honeybee’s natural
supermarket. Once the plant has stopped flowering,
honeybees will no longer visit it on their ‘shopping
trips.’ If you have any persistent pests, they can
be sprayed at that point.
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Some pests, like aphids, can be attacked by an army
of ladybugs, if you can find ladybugs in quantity.
Also helpful are various the types of praying mantis
found in Costa Rica. Some other insects you may not
have thought of before are the following:
Damsel
bugs: aphids are a favorite food
Ground beetles: many
types, some eat caterpillars and slugs
Aphid midges: attract
them by planting dill
Mealybug destroyer:
fennel and dill will attract them
The internet has lists
of other beneficial insects. Check them out and try
to promote them in your garden.
Plants for the Week
Victoria
Torley courtesy photo
Plants for the Week
Here is something a bit different. Do you have an
old wheelbarrow? Get creative with it as a
planter. This one holds mondo grass, lantana,
wandering jew and dusty miller. Lantana provides
the color, dusty miller bright accents and
wandering jew some length. Use your imagination
and create your own mini wheelbarrow garden.
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Editor's note:
Victoria Torley, gardener columnist, can be reached
at victoriatorley1@gmail.com
*Link
to reach the place on map.
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