The Other Pollinators
Presented by: Charlie Pitts, Master Gardener
Everybody is familiar with honeybees, and how they pollinate plants and make honey. At lease 500 bee species are native to Illinois and are essential to pollinating many plants. In fact, many native bee species are far better at pollinating than the honeybee. Find out what pollination actually is, how it’s done, and a bit about the lives of some of the “other” pollinators, which include native bees, butterflies, moths, ants and even birds.
Charlie Pitts is an amateur naturalist and retired Air Force officer and systems engineer. He completed his BS in Biology from the University of Kansas in 1968 and re-entered the naturalist world through the University of Illinois Extension’s Master Naturalist program in 2012. Since then he has volunteered at numerous local Illinois and Missouri conservation projects. Currently he is a member of the Illinois State Master Naturalist Advisory Board and an advisor with St. Louis Audubon’s Bring Conservation Home service. He and a team of Master Naturalists and Master Gardeners are in their fourth year of creating a 1000 square foot native-plant only pollinator garden located at the O’Fallon Community Garden, a project of the O’Fallon Garden Club. This native plant pollinator garden’s purpose is to showcase how natives can fit into ‘conventional’ home landscapes and provide blooming flowers every month of the year. The garden currently has 48 native species and 160 plants, with plans to add another 20 species this year.