Our friends at Bee Safe Ann Arbor recently shared out some helpful tips for how to go about prepping your yard for spring in ways that are mindful of our local pollinators. Read on, and contact them if you have any questions about how best to implement their ideas! If you haven't already, consider joining your neighbors in taking the Bee Safe pledge - more info available here.
Greetings of nearly-spring time to all who joined us in 2016 and 2017 to support safe habitat and food sources for all kinds of pollinators!
Thank you for joining with your neighbors to sign the Bee Safe pledge to care for your lawns and gardens without use of toxic pesticides and herbicides. People, pets and the planet benefit from encountering fewer toxics, too!
We are preparing for spring, and want to provide reminders to:
- Check labels on all lawn chemicals. If you use a lawn service, ask them to use only fertilizers at most, and not weed killers that will harm pollinators.
- Purchase seeds and plants that have not been treated with neonicitinoids (see list below), which are systemic chemicals that once applied to seeds or plants, are present in all of a treated plant’s cells. Neonicitinoids are designed to kill all insects. Ask vendors and growers, and go to another grower source if they are unable to tell you if their plants are treated.
- Remember that it’s easy to Bee Safe: Just don’t use pesticides and herbicides! It’s so much better for all of us, and allows the pollinators that help us to continue with their short lives.
- Ask your neighbors to join in the Bee Safe community. The more household yards that are free of pesticides and herbicides, the better!
- Add flowering plants to provide food for honeybees, native bees, butterflies and their caterpillars.
If you have questions about how to care for your lawn and garden using Bee Safe practices, please contact us at beesafeannarbor@gmail.com
Ready to welcome spring, and to talk with you soon,
Rita and Eileen
Bee Safe Ann Arbor Co-Chairs
Neonicitinoids: check labels for the chemicals listed here. Nectar and pollen of plants treated with these chemicals will be toxic to honeybees, native bees, butterflies, caterpillars, and other insects:
- Acetamiprid
- Clothianidin
- Cyantraniliprole
- Dinotefuran
- Imidacloprid
- Sulfoxaflor
- Thiacloprid
- Thiamethoxam
Follow us on Facebook: Bee Safe Ann Arbor. Watch for the upcoming launch of our web site. We'll keep you posted!