Since our yards are their habitat, it’s up to us to furnish a healthy and supportive environment for our local pollinators. Scientists like Doug Tallamy have identified actions we can take to do that. Some are common-sense steps to “do no harm” and some are ways to enrich their habitat. This page has links to information about some of those strategies. Examples include:

Do no harm:

• Avoid buying plants and seeds treated with systemic pesticides, like neonicotinoids.

• Avoid air-borne sprays and zappers that kill beneficial insects. Instead, use effective methods of pest control, like “buckets of doom” for mosquitos.

• Reduce light pollution. Doing so will help moths--which pollinate more plants than butterflies—lightning bugs, migrating birds, and many other species.

Enrich the habitat:

• Keep the pollinator food bank open 24/7 throughout the growing season with native plants.

• Have soft ground and cushy leaves for pollinator nests and nurseries.

• Remove invasive plants. As noted by the University of Maryland Extension Service (UMDES), “Invasive plants are the greatest threat to the natural environment, other than habitat destruction.”

• Reduce the size of your lawn and replace it with functional habitat. Turf grass is an ecological dead zone and sequesters very little carbon.