Pollinators

[00:00:00] Alex Re: Hello, welcome to On Wildlife. I'm your host Alex Re. On this podcast, we bring the wild to you. We take you on a journey into the life of a different animal every month, and I guarantee you, you're gonna come out of here knowing more about your favorite animal than you did before. This episode is very special because it's our 150th episode.

[00:00:23] And before we go any further, I wanna thank every person who has supported this show. If you've listened to one episode, all 150 or somewhere in between. Thank you from all of us here at On Wildlife, your support means the world to us, and I hope this podcast has helped you learn something new about the animals that we share this earth with.

[00:00:45] And we love getting fan mail from you guys. So I want everyone listening to this podcast to email us your favorite on Wildlife episode. Our email is on Wildlife dot podcast@gmail.com. Now this episode is special for another reason too, because we have our first ever returning guest. If you've been with us for a while, you may remember David Mizejewski, who I had the pleasure of talking to four years ago during National Wildlife Week.

[00:01:15] Well, he's finally back to talk to us about one of the most important groups of animals on the planet. So try not to sneeze because we're talking about pollinators.

[00:01:42] David is a naturalist and TV host for the National Wildlife Federation. He's been on countless talk shows like The Today Show. Good Morning America, Conan, and More to spread awareness about all different types of animals. And he has lots to share with us about pollinators. But before we start the interview, I want you to think about some animals that can be classified as pollinators.

[00:02:07] Now, keep that in your head and pay close attention to see how many animals we talk about that you thought of. Okay. Now without further ado, let's get to the interview to talk about pollinators. Hey David, how you doing? Hey

[00:02:23] David Mizejewski: Alex. It's great to be back.

[00:02:24] Alex Re: Great to have you back. It's been about four years since we last had you on the show, uh, when you were talking about National Wildlife Week, which is crazy.

[00:02:34] David Mizejewski: Yeah. Time really does fly and it does not go any slower the older you get. So

[00:02:40] Alex Re: agreed. And it's our hundred 50th episode, so I'm really glad you're able to join me again. So can you tell me what you've been up to since the last time we talked?

[00:02:51] David Mizejewski: Oh gosh. All sorts of stuff. The biggest thing that I can share, um, is a project.

[00:02:56] That I did with the great courses. If you're not familiar, it's a partner that does educational content, but it's really kind of entertaining too. It's a streaming platform and it's an app, and they basically team up with experts to do educational series. So I. Last year premiered a series A 12 episode series called Field Guide to North American Wildlife, where it's basically each, each episode is a 30 minute deep dive into some of the coolest wildlife species that we have here in North America, mostly in the US that I get to geek out over for an entire 30 minutes.

[00:03:34] So if you're into that kind of thing, you can definitely check it out. It's the great courses. Dot com slash nwf for National Wildlife Federation, and there's a little bit of a discount that National Wildlife Federation folks can get. You can either download the videos or you could, you could actually buy it on DVD.

[00:03:53] You can also subscribe to the platform, and then you can get access to all of their content that way too. It's not really super announced yet, but we are gonna be doing another project with the great courses that I won't be able to give details on yet. But, you know, stay tuned and I'll have more to share on that soon.

[00:04:11] Alex Re: Well, that sounds so awesome. That kind of reminds me of like the masterclass things.

[00:04:16] David Mizejewski: That's exactly what, what it's like. It's, it's very similar to that and it's great. I mean, you know, I've done lots of television, you know, over the course of my career I hosted a series on Animal Planet, which is actually.

[00:04:27] Celebrating its 20th anniversary all the way back in 2005. Backyard Habitat on Animal Planet, um, premiered. And so I can't believe it's been been that long. So, but doing the, the Great Courses Project was great because it's a little bit more of a deep dive than you could typically do on a, on sort of a, a regular television series.

[00:04:47] So, um, if you're really into. Learning cool facts about wildlife, seeing some incredible footage. We've got, even got a little bit of storytelling in the field guide to North American Wildlife from the great courses. So I hope that folks do check it out, but that's one of the things that I've been working on in the last four years.

[00:05:04] I could go on and on and on about everything else, but that's not what we're here for.

[00:05:08] Alex Re: I mean, it's, it's been a while. So I'm sure you've done a million things by then and you were talking about backyard habitats. I feel like it's a great segue into. What we're talking about today, which is National Pollinator week, June 23rd to June 29th.

[00:05:25] Can you tell us about the different types of pollinators that are out there?

[00:05:28] David Mizejewski: Yes, absolutely. I love pollinators. They're some of the coolest wildlife that we have on this planet, and by coolest, I mean the most critically important, so. Not everybody really necessarily knows what a pollinator is, so I always start by just telling folks what pollinators are.

[00:05:46] They are a diverse group of wildlife that feed on the nectar and or pollen of flowers. And when they go to get those food resources, their bodies get dusted in that pollen. And when they move on to the next plant or the next flower, some of that pollen sticks to the second flower and fertilizes it. And so.

[00:06:09] Basically pollinators are how the vast majority of flowering plant species, which make up the majority of plants on this planet, are able to reproduce. And so when those flowers are fertilized. The, the, the, the plant is able to form seeds, which it oftentimes, you know, encapsulates in these tasty little treats in the form of nuts and berries and, and, you know, just seeds.

[00:06:34] Think of like a sunflower seed, right? That is actually food for another whole host of wildlife species, including us. And so without pollinators, the base of the food web, which are is plants would not be able to reproduce. And all of those food sources that feed wildlife up and down that food web again, including human beings, would not exist.

[00:06:56] And so without our pollinators, really life on this planet as we know it would, would cease if they all just disappear tomorrow. So as a, as sort of a, a diverse collection of wildlife. Pollinators are probably, you know, the most important group for, again, life on, on the, this planet as we know it today. And sadly, they're disappearing pretty rapidly.

[00:07:19] And that's why there's a need for things like National Pollinator Week, or, you know, at the National Wildlife Federation, we actually celebrate pollinators the entire month of June. We just think of it as pollinator month. But yeah, so they're, they're really important and so. You're probably wondering, okay, so you're talking about all these, you know, diverse animals, you know, what, what are the actual pollinators?

[00:07:40] So they're interestingly not what you would necessarily think. So let me ask you a question. What do you think? You know, what, what, when I say pollinator, what springs to your mind?

[00:07:51] Alex Re: First thing that comes to my mind is bees. Maybe. Butterflies.

[00:07:57] David Mizejewski: Yeah. Those are the, the, the big two that most people think about.

[00:08:00] So let's, let me go through the list though. So, so yeah, bees deservedly are the, the, the kind of pollinator that has gotten the most attention. So, real quick about bees. Most people think of the honeybee when you say bee and honeybees are great, and they're really actually important for our agriculture systems here in the us.

[00:08:20] But what a lot of people don't realize is that they're not wildlife. Bees are actually a domesticated species, honeybees. And again, why they are important for agriculture, you know, they're really important pollinators of crops, for example, of course they make honey, they also make bees wax, right? So there's a lot of good that they, that they give us, but they were brought over by European colonists, north America specifically for those services that they provide to us.

[00:08:49] And so what a lot of people don't realize is that, you know, honeybees. Are really the equivalent, you know, say of like a cow or a chicken versus wildlife, like say a bison or a sage grouse, right? Like those are the wildlife versions of those animals. It's the same thing with honeybees. And so as a result of all the attention that honeybees get, people don't know about our incredible wild native bees.

[00:09:13] So globally. There's about 20,000 species of bees on this planet, and here in North America we've got a little bit under 4,000 species. So any given state in the US has at least a few hundred, if not a few thousand of these wild native bee species, and they're the bee species that are pollinating all the plants in nature.

[00:09:34] So it's not the honeybees, it's our wild bumblebees, for example, or our sweat bees, or our digger bees or our mason bees. And as you can tell, as I'm rattling off all these different kinds of bees, there's again a tremendous diversity. And the really neat thing about them that a lot of people are shocked to find out is that the vast majority of our native bees.

[00:09:57] Are nothing like honeybees. They don't live in hives, they don't have queens, they don't make honey. They generally don't sting, even though all the females can, many of them do not have that black and yellow striping that we see in sort of, we think of as a iconic bee. Right? So the honeybee is actually the exception to the rule in terms of what it means to be a bee in the bee world.

[00:10:20] And again, that's why it's kind of like, oh gosh, everybody just thinks of the honeybee and they're missing the. The, the real cool stuff. Right. And so, yeah, most of those, those native bees I mentioned don't live in hives and they don't have queens. They're solitary. So it's an individual female bee. She emerges, she mates, she lays her eggs in a little tunnel either in the ground or in like a hollow plant stem or something like that.

[00:10:44] She gives each, she puts a little ball of nectar and pollen in there. She lays an egg on it. She builds a chamber wall, and she fills up that little tunnel. And then she's done. She will fly off. She has completed her mission. She'll die. Her offspring will hatch and pupate. Sometimes they'll actually spend the next winter in that tunnel, and then in the spring they emerge to, you know, keep the cycle going.

[00:11:06] So it's very, very, very different for most bee species than what we think of, of what a honeybee does. And of course, because there is such a diversity of these wild native bees. And they are so co-evolved with flowering plants. They're generally considered to be like the most important pollinators that we have.

[00:11:24] They just are effective at pollinating, again, because of their body shapes. You know, they got these fuzzy bodies and these little structures on their legs that are actually evolved to hold onto pollen. And so they just move pollen really effectively. And again, there's a lot of them. So that's just sort of.

[00:11:40] A little bit about what I could say about our wild native bees, but they are, you know, one of the most primary pollinators. I'm gonna catch my breath here, but I'm sure you have questions about bees.

[00:11:51] Alex Re: Yeah, absolutely. There's so much to talk about with bees and it's really interesting that we think of honeybees as really the be when they're really the exception that is crazy.

[00:12:03] And B, life cycles are just so, so interesting. And you talked a little bit about. How effective they are at pollinating. Can you elaborate a little bit more about what makes them such effective pollinators?

[00:12:18] David Mizejewski: Yeah, so I touched on two, two of their, their sort of physical characteristics that make them just super efficient.

[00:12:24] Pollinators. Number one, most bees have sort of fuzzy bodies and you know, think about a typical wasp. Which bees, by the way, evolved from bees are basically wasps that evolved to eat nectar instead of eating other insects. And so, and we're gonna talk a little bit more about wasps too as we continue the conversation, but we'll put a pin in that for a moment.

[00:12:46] So the bees evolve these furry bodies because it holds onto more pollen. They also have, again, special kind of structures. On their legs that are called pollen baskets. And you know, in some species they actually will, will like rub, like collect the pollen and sort of rub it onto these baskets. And if you look closely at many bee species out there, like, you know, when go out into your garden right now, if you have any blooming plants and look closely and you'll see on the back legs of certain bees, you'll see these little yellow balls.

[00:13:16] That's pollen. And I guess I should stop too and, and explain what they're doing with that pollen. Why are bees collecting pollen? Well, it's because that's what they feed their babies. So bee babies eat pollen. It's super, you know, it's rich in protein. It's got a little bit of fat in it. It's a really nutritious food source for the baby bees.

[00:13:35] And another shocking thing about bees that again, I don't think a lot of people know, is that there's a huge percentage of bees that we call pollen specialists. And what that means is that they can only feed their babies the pollen. From a certain certain kinds of plants. And what that means. If those plants, which are all, which are typically the native plants again, that the bees co-evolved with, if they're not found in the landscape, those bees cannot feed their babies and they, their, their life cycles halt and their populations plummet.

[00:14:08] And that's exactly what we're seeing with a lot of bee species. And so anywhere, you know, I've seen different estimates anywhere from 25 to, in, in some estimates, say 60% of our wild native bees. Pollen specialists. So, you know, it's, it's pretty, it's kind of mind blowing when you think about it, about how.

[00:14:28] Bees and, and the native plants that they evolved with are really like two pieces of a puzzle. You really can't have one without the other because if the bees didn't exist, then the plants would not be able to be pollinated and they wouldn't be able to reproduce themselves and vice versa. If without the flowers providing that nectar and importantly pollen for the baby bees, the bees couldn't exist either.

[00:14:51] So it's a really beautiful example of the symbiosis that happens in nature and. Kind of a warning about what happens when we humans pull away one of the pieces of the puzzle. Right. And, and the ripple effect that that can have.

[00:15:06] Alex Re: Definitely. And isn't it true that a lot of the plant species that we view as like weeds are actually native plants that are really important to the ecosystems that we're currently in?

[00:15:19] David Mizejewski: Yeah. So yes, that's true. But I also think it's a little bit dangerous to phrase it that way because Uhhuh. Native plants, many people think of them as quote unquote weeds, right? Mm-hmm. And the reality is, is that native plants. Many species are highly ornamental. You know, many of them have been cultivated and are, you know, common garden plants.

[00:15:40] Think of black-eyed Susans or purple comb flowers, or, you know, things like that. So, so I don't want to give anybody the impression that native plants are just weeds, right? Mm-hmm. With that said, what, you know, the spirit of what you were just saying is absolutely true. The wild plants that grow in nature are critically important for wildlife, and this by the way, is why.

[00:16:00] Wildlife Conservation Group, like the National Wildlife Federation has a garden focused program, you know, garden for Wildlife. You know, a lot of times people scratch their head and they're like, wait, don't we wanna get rid of the wildlife in the garden? Aren't they gonna eat everything? And no. In fact, if you wanna have a healthy garden, and by garden I mean.

[00:16:19] Just whatever you're planting for whatever purpose, right? The garden isn't just a vegetable garden, right? Your landscape where, or whatever, wherever you're doing it. It could even be container gardens on a balcony or on a rooftop, right? Mm-hmm. If you're planting something for whatever reason because you like pretty flowers, or you know you like to eat fresh produce, or because you want to help restore the natural world.

[00:16:42] By making choices in whatever garden space you have that all counts as gardening. So gardening for wildlife is when people choose to plant and restore the native plant populations, many of which are ornamental, right? And, and in doing so, then support the wildlife, notably pollinators. So it really is all connected.

[00:17:03] That's kind of the main thing here.

[00:17:05] Alex Re: Yeah, that's, that's great. And can we talk about some of the pollinators that you wouldn't really expect to be pollinators? Yeah. So I already

[00:17:13] David Mizejewski: mentioned one wasps. Yeah. You know, wasps are probably right up there with snakes as some of the most sort of hated wildlife.

[00:17:21] But the reality is, is that the vast majority of the many, tens of thousands of wasp species that exist are pretty much completely harmless to people. Just like with bees, the majority of wasps are solitary. And the reason that that is important, this applies to the bees as well as the wasps, is that why?

[00:17:42] Why do bees and wasps sting? They don't sting. 'cause you know, you look like something that they want to go after. They're terrified of us. We're huge, right? There's nothing that they can do, you know that. Well, I mean, I guess if you're allergic, there is something that they can do to give you significant harm.

[00:18:00] But the point is, is that bees and wasps sting defensively. Mm-hmm. They're never gonna go out of their way to try to sting you. They do it when they feel threatened. Right. And the social species that do form hives. They've got a lot of resources in that, in those hives. In the case of honeybees, they've got honey and all of their, they're brood.

[00:18:21] All of their babies are in there. Same thing with the wasps. They don't have honey, but they have all their babies. So of course if something lumbers by and is a perceived as a potential threat, they're gonna try to sting you. So yeah, yellow jackets. I admit they're, they're kind of the worst. They're kind of wasp, they tend do tend to be kind of aggressive, but even yellow jackets aren't gonna bother you if you don't mess with them.

[00:18:45] And so that's just sort of a good reminder of like, leave them be and they'll be fine. But again, the majority of wasp species are solitary. They are not protecting their babies, right? They don't have a hive that they're being defensive of. So unless you actually pick them up in your hand. And try to squish them.

[00:19:01] They're not gonna sting you. Right? So the reason we're talking about wasps is that wasps, like bees are pollinators. So many species are visiting those same flowers and they're drinking up the flower nectar and maybe eating some of the pollen. But in addition to being pollinators. Wasps are also predatory.

[00:19:20] So many species of wasps either feed in addition to pollen and nectar will feed on other insects, many of which are pests. But, uh, many of them are also parasitic. So what they'll do is they have all these specializations. So there are certain wasps species that utilize different groups of prey, basically, as.

[00:19:42] As essentially a, a host for their parasitic larva. Okay, so what does that mean? Well, there's, there's wasp species like tarantula hawks. Who target tarantulas and other spiders, right? There are species that only go after grasshoppers and crickets. Many wasps species specialize in caterpillars, and so again, a lot of these are, you know, potential pest species.

[00:20:07] So wasps are not only doing that pollination service. But they're actually doing a huge service to us, both as home gardeners, but also for agriculture in keeping the populations of potential pests, like certain moth species and you know, that kind of thing under, and grasshoppers too, and, and crickets and things like that.

[00:20:26] They can be agricultural pests as well. So they're doing like incredible service. To us, yet we hate them, and we've been taught. The first thing to do when you see a wasp is grab the pesticide and spray it. And it's just such a sad and unfortunate thing because we need those wasps and they're, they're, they're, you know, way more beneficial than they are harmful.

[00:20:47] Alex Re: Definitely. We did an episode on wasps a while back, and they're just the most interesting insects. I, I remember reading an article that they're able to identify their specific. Hole that they, that they live in by the surrounding objects that are there. Yeah, so if the objects were moved away from their hole, they would be looking for the hole around the object, which is would just crazy.

[00:21:15] David Mizejewski: I mean, the same is true for solitary bees. They have to, you know, they recognize landmarks and they just, like we would do when we go into a place that we're familiar with, you know, where things are because your brain kind of maps it all out and yeah, they're, they're, yeah, they're pretty incredible animals.

[00:21:32] Definitely. And are there any other pollinators that we wouldn't expect? Oh yeah, we're just getting started. I've got several more to get through. So the other one that you mentioned were butterflies and. You know, butterflies are also pretty obvious. It's pretty well known that they're pollinators. You know, they're flying around drinking flower nectar and again, getting brushed with the pollen and, and moving it around.

[00:21:53] You know, they're not necessarily as effective pollinators as say the bees are, but they're still really important ones. And interestingly though, not all butterfly species are only feeding on flower nectar, and I love to share this little factoid. Many butterfly species, either in addition to, or instead of drinking flower nectar, feed on such delicious things as rotting fruit, animal dung, or even like liquefying corpses of dead animals.

[00:22:24] And it's tends to be the butterfly species that are maybe living in more woodland scenarios where there's not as much sun. You know, down on the forest floor, and therefore there's not as many blooming plants as there would be, say, in a grassy meadow or a prairie, you know, or something like that. And so these butterflies have evolved to drink up liquids from other sources.

[00:22:45] And so, you know, like people think, oh, butterflies, they're so pretty and cute, but, and there it's eating animal poop, you know? So, um, but the butterflies are that they're a big class of, of pollinators. And of course, butterflies go hand in hand with moths. Now moths don't get the love that their butterfly descendants do.

[00:23:04] So just like wasps came first and then bees evolved from them. Same thing with butterflies and moths. The moths actually came first and then butterflies evolved from moths basically to take advantage of all of the blooming plants that evolved with the bees. So the bees and the and the blooming plants evolved together and drove each other's evolution.

[00:23:28] And the moths over there were like, Hey. You know, there's all this extra blooming stuff happening during the daytime. Why don't a branch of us evolve into being day flying and evolve our bodies to take advantage of all these new blooming plants that weren't here before? So it's really fascinating stuff, but mos are actually, I would say, more important as pollinators than than butterflies are.

[00:23:51] And it's, it's really a case of the numbers. So again, there's. You know, moths have, or butterflies evolved from moths, but there's exponentially more moth species. As a result, you know, existing on the planet than there are butterflies. So it's literally a numbers thing. There's just more of them out there flying around.

[00:24:09] And yes, they do tend to, you know, focus on night blooming plants, but not, you know, not a lot of flowers don't close up at night. So MOS are taking advantage of those. And the other reason that moss in particular are really important for the ecosystem is not so much their direct pollination service, but because again, there's.

[00:24:30] A lot of different moths, species and butterflies and moths, they all start out as caterpillars. And so those caterpillars are a absolute critical food source for so many other species up and down the food chain I already mentioned wasps. Many wasps species rely on those caterpillars as food for their young so that they can keep their populations going, right?

[00:24:51] But the one that I think blows people's minds the most is that 96%. Of our backyard birds rely on a diet of insects and other invertebrates to feed their babies. 96%. Wow. So that's almost every kind of the, the, the scientific, you know, way of breaking down is upland terrestrial birds. So we're not talking about, you know, waterfowl or wading birds.

[00:25:17] You know, it's basically all of the songbirds, all of the woodpeckers, all of the hummingbirds, right? Mm-hmm. They are feeding their babies insects. And in the case of most songbirds. It's largely the caterpillars of moths. Wow. So if we don't have those moths out there, which again, they're sort of not as as beloved as the butterflies, but their caterpillars are an essential food source for a huge portion, a huge percentage of our backyard birds that we all wanna see more of.

[00:25:47] So, you know, when you plant a pollinator garden and you're supporting the moths, you're also supporting the birds. It's, it's, again. The message that everything is connected is, is is there. So we've talked about bees, we've talked about wasps, we've talked about butterflies, we've talked about moths. There are many beetle and bug species that are pollinators and a little, little breaking down of that terminology there.

[00:26:12] It's all insects are not bugs. Bugs are actually. And an entire specific order of insects defined by their body shapes and their behavior. Yeah, they look kind of similar in many cases to Beetles, which. Yet another whole order of insects. They tend to have sort of hard shells and wing cases. Most bugs have sort of sucking mouth parts, so they're typically feeding on plants and sucking in juices.

[00:26:38] Some of them use that, that you know, sort of straw like sucking mouth part as like a hypodermic needle and suck the juices out of other things, living things or animals, I guess, you know, other insects. But there's whole groups of both bugs. Beetles who have evolved to again, feed on flower nectar and pollen.

[00:26:55] So they're running around the blooming plants, getting dusted in pollen and serving as pollinators. But the, the, the, the group of insects that I think I love sort of shocking people with that are, that are pollinators. Flies. Wow. Right. So what do you think of when you think of a fly, right? You think of those, you know, green flies that are, again, flying around the dog poop and the trash cans and everything like that, right?

[00:27:19] Well, just like with all the, these other groups of insects, there is tremendous diversity of species. So yeah, sure there are some flies that. They specialize on feeding on gross stuff, but there's a whole group of flies that are called flower flies or surfed flies, and these oftentimes are actually mimics.

[00:27:40] Of bees and wasps, they tend to have that yellow and black and striping that a lot of those bees and wasps, but not all that, that they have. And of course they're totally harmless, they can't sting. But again, that's like sort of co-evolution where, you know, one, one group of wildlife mimics another to gain some benefit from that, that mimicry.

[00:27:57] Right? And so, but the surf flies. Probably after the bees, some of the most important pollinators in terms of their effectiveness, again, due to their numbers. And so they're flying around, you know, drinking flower nectar and pollinating. But the really neat thing about them is that not only are they providing that pollination service, you know, like with the wasps, they're pollinating, but then they're also hunting.

[00:28:20] It's kind of the same with the, with the surf, it flies, except it's not the adult flies, it's their larva. So those little fly larva are voracious predators of small, soft bodied insects like aphids. So if anybody's out there as a gardener, you know, aphids are these little tiny green insects and they, you know, they're, they're sap suckers, right?

[00:28:40] So they can really kind of get outta control and kind of start sucking the life out of some of your plants. And so you want the surface flies. 'cause not only are they gonna be pollinating your flowers, but they're also going to be. Their larva are gonna be helping to take care of some of those aphids.

[00:28:56] So again, it's all about an ecosystem, but there's one group of flies that is gonna be a tough sell. But I have to tell people, because it's my job as a naturalist to just sort of interpret the natural world and let people know, you know, the reality of things. And so mosquitoes are pollinators. That's disappointing for a lot of people.

[00:29:16] I think. Well, here, here's the good news. Um, so, so, well mosquitoes of course are, they're kind of fly, right? So that's why I'm including them under flies. Not everybody, you know, realizes that, but they're a part of the, the fly order. And so yeah, what happens is that because for obvious reasons, we think of mosquitoes as being blood suckers because we are on their menu.

[00:29:38] But the reality is, is that the main food source for mosquitoes is not blood. It's flower nectar and in fact, it's only the female mosquitoes that even ever try to get a blood meal and try to bite us. The males. They're out there just drinking flour and nectar, happily pollinating things. And the females only seek the blood meal when they're getting ready to lay eggs 'cause they need that extra sort of protein and other nutrients.

[00:30:04] And so it's really just the females and only when they're, they're reproducing. But the good news is that there are no plants that are like sort of completely tied to mosquitoes as their only pollinator. And in fact, as far as pollinators go. Mosquitoes are way, way, way down on the list of importance.

[00:30:23] They're kind of generalists. They kind of pollinate things, but it's not like a super effective pollination like the bees or the surf flies, so you don't have to worry about wanting to avoid mosquitoes or eliminate their habitat. That's actually a good thing to do. I won't go down that rabbit hole, but I will say we've got a whole bunch.

[00:30:42] We actually have a whole. Blog series about it on what mosquitoes are, what roles they play, and the best ways to eliminate the chances of being bitten by a mosquito that don't rely on just nuking the entire landscape with pesticides, which spoiler is a really terrible thing to do. Please don't do that because you're, you're, you will to, I don't care what the marketing claims are from the pest control companies.

[00:31:06] If you're spraying for mosquitoes, you're killing. The butterflies, you're killing the bees, you're killing those surf flies. You're killing all of these incredibly important pollinating insects. So don't do that. But anyway, mosquitoes are pollinators, but it's okay if you wanna squish them or put repellent on or get rid of their breeding habitat.

[00:31:24] Alex Re: Absolutely. And, and we have, you know, preconceived notions of every single animal, but every animal has its purpose in its specific ecosystem, native habitat.

[00:31:35] David Mizejewski: Exactly. Yeah. So there's a couple more pollinators to cover that we have here in North America. So all of the ones that I just told you about, the, the bees, the wasps, the butterflies, the moths, the beetles, the bugs, the flies, those are all obviously insects.

[00:31:50] But there are some vertebrate wildlife that are pollinators that we have in North America. And I've mentioned one, one group of them a couple times already, and that's hummingbirds. So Hummingbirds only found in North and South America. Incredible, incredible little birds that have just. I don't even, such a fascinating evolutionary history where they can flap their wings at incredible speeds.

[00:32:16] They can hover, they can fly backwards, and they have these super long bills that inside of which is this tongue that has a little feathery tip and that whole. That whole structure that they have, again, is like two pieces of a puzzle. It is designed specifically to go into deep tubular shaped flowers. So they're like, again, they just fit like perfectly together, right?

[00:32:42] And so the tongue comes out and the little feathery tip just kind of, you know, like flickers in and out inside the flower. And it, it, you know, it kind of pulls in all of the flower nectar that's down at the bottom of that flower and the flowers. I shouldn't, I should mention this. We haven't actually talked about flowers, so let me just take one little side step to talk about them and then we'll come back to hummingbirds.

[00:33:05] The plants essentially have figured out how to take absolute advantage of these dumb animals that are running around and utilize these moving busy body animals to do the work of, of mating, essentially, right? Pollination it. It put another way is just plant sex. Plants can't move to each other, right? So they figured out ways of baiting these dumb animals.

[00:33:33] Oh, come get a nice little sip of nectar. It's high calorie. It's what you need to flap your wings. But then the plants have evolved to grow structures that then when that hummingbird comes in. It's anthers, the part of the flower that produces the pollen, which is the male reproductive parts in the whole plant sex thing, right?

[00:33:52] The anthers stick in such a spot that when the hummingbird comes in it, it will hit the hummingbird on the forehead or on the chest so that all of the pollen gets on it. And it, you know, again, plants that are specialized. With their pollinators have these kinds of structures. So plants that are pollinated by bees are set up in such a way that they deliver the pollen to the body of bees.

[00:34:15] Plants that are pollinated by other things, you know, like the hummingbirds have different structures. So, and again, remember I was talking about the, the, the sort of co-evolution and diversification. That's what I'm talking about, right. We have so many different kinds of blooming plants, which is great for us as gardeners 'cause we love seeing all the pretty flowers and all the different shapes and colors that led to this great diversity of wildlife and vice versa.

[00:34:39] Right? It's just so fascinating. But anyway, the hummingbirds come in, they drink the flower nectar, they get rubbed with pollen. They go on and you know the same story as with the other one. So they're really neat. But I will say this. I, I said this earlier too, is that hummingbirds do not survive on a diet of flower nectar alone, which is something that most people think they rely on insects.

[00:35:01] Notably, the little itty bitty insects that are, quite honestly, some of the most annoying little gnats and little tiny flies that no cms, and all of those things that buzz around your head, including mosquitoes, those are the scale of the insect. That the size wise, that the hummingbirds are feeding because they themselves are so tiny.

[00:35:22] Mm-hmm. So, you know, attract a hummingbird, kill a mosquito. Right. It's, it's, it's how it works. The other group of pollinators, vertebrate pollinators that we have in North America are bats. So we've got 47 species of bats in North America and all, but three of them are in, they, they feed on insects and so as their primary food source.

[00:35:45] But the, there's three species of bats mostly that are found sort of south of the US so they're found in Mexico and into Central America that will migrate up into. Southern California or other desert southwest states. So it's the Mexican long tongue, the lesser long nose. And I'm completely drawing a blank on what the third one is.

[00:36:07] But at any rate, these are nectar and fruit heating bats. So in those arid landscapes you've got a lot of cactus and succulents and that kind of thing. And so they, you know, they're blooming plants too. So they will put out these, in many cases, gorgeous blooms that are shaped. Exactly to fit the muzzles of these devore bats, right?

[00:36:30] So again, two pieces of the puzzle and they get dusted with the pollen and just like all the rest of them, they then move it on. And bats are really neat because they're pollinating things like bananas. They're pollinating things like agave, which if you like a margarita or that tequila shot, the agave is the plant that we, that we use.

[00:36:54] To make tequila, right? So like thank a bat, you know, when you're out sitting and having your margarita, right? It's so, they're, they're really cool and they're really important and, and so yeah, those are the categories of wildlife that here in North America are pollinators. Those insects, it's the hummingbirds, it's the, it's the, the, the bat species.

[00:37:14] Globally. There are all sorts of other animals that also get into the pollination game. One of the coolest is there's a, an a possum species. That lives in South America. And so, you know, the opossums are the, the, the, the mammals. The marsupial mammals that are found in the Americas. We've got one of them that ranges.

[00:37:37] You know, up into the US and that is the Virginia a possum? You know, the, I think everybody knows what they look like. They're kind of, you know, the, the grayish white and the long tail and everybody hates 'em 'cause they're ugly looking, but they're like also the raddest animals out there. Mm-hmm. You can have me back on for another episode and we could talk about nothing but a possums.

[00:37:56] I'd love to and yeah, I will be in heaven 'cause they're one of my favorites. But yeah, the a possums, there's a species. That lives in South America and there's dozens of species, some of which look nothing like the Virginia a possum, but there is a species that recently was discovered to be basically feeding on flowers and it was documented to be, uh, pollinating.

[00:38:15] There's also lizards that are documented as pollinators, so I think there's even lemurs that are pollinators as well, and Madagascar, so these are little primates. So anyway, there's a lot of diversity. In, in the kinds of pollinator kinds of animals that are pollinators, but like we started out with, all of them are really, really important for flowering plants to reproduce.

[00:38:38] Again, they're the majority of the plant species on the planet. Over 80% of our plants are flowering plants, so we need. To have these pollinators out there doing their job, we benefit from it every single day and not just because of the margaritas, right? A lot of our crops are the result of animal pollinators, and a lot of the foods that we feed our livestock are actually pollinated by some of these insects in particular.

[00:39:03] So, you know, if you like a steak. If you like milk, if you like ice cream, you know you can thank a pollinator because they're not doing anything directly to the cows that give us those foods, but they're pollinating the crops that we feed the cows, so it's all connected.

[00:39:20] Alex Re: That's so interesting, and I'm noticing kind of a theme where a lot of the animals that we kind of push aside, we think of as pests.

[00:39:29] We have a negative connotation to are. Doing so much for the ecosystems and for us and we, we should be thanking them in return instead of shying away from them.

[00:39:41] David Mizejewski: You get an A plus for hearing the message. I appreciate that because that really, I. Is the message that I'm here to give, put super succinctly.

[00:39:50] I mean, I've been talking for almost an hour here, and that's really the crux of it, right? You just said it right there in those sentences. And that's why this is what the work of the National Wildlife Federation is all about, you know? And you know, it's not just pollinators, it's our predators and it's, you know, it's our, it's our marine life and you know, everything in between.

[00:40:08] It, it, it, it's all part of this. Incredible system of life that we have on this planet that for good or for ill, we human beings. Are stewards of, or if we make poor choices, the destroyers of, and we do that at our own peril because, you know, there's only so many strands that we can pluck from that, that sort of web of life before the whole thing destabilizes and it crumbles in on ourselves.

[00:40:35] So, and we're already seeing that with climate change. You know, climate change isn't, isn't just about saving the polar bears, right? It's about saving ourselves. So many humans are being put at risk and, and in danger because of the effects of the climate change that we have caused, you know, wildfires, floods, you know, extreme weather events that are all exactly the kinds of results of the destabilization of our climate from the global climate change.

[00:41:02] But again, that's a whole other topic that we can get into at another time. Definitely

[00:41:06] Alex Re: it's, it's not a coincidence that you're seeing more and more of these natural disasters. That are starting to happen?

[00:41:13] David Mizejewski: No, it's actually so obvious, and it's exactly the kinds of results that have been predicted since we've been, you know, re monitoring the human caused climate change from burning fossil fuels and cutting down our forests and so on.

[00:41:27] So, yeah, it's, it's like, it's just really not a surprise at all.

[00:41:31] Alex Re: Definitely. And. I'm interested to know why we view butterflies in a positive light, but we don't view moths in that light. Is it just 'cause they're out at night? It doesn't make much sense to me, you know?

[00:41:45] David Mizejewski: Yeah. I think it has to do with colorfulness maybe.

[00:41:48] Yeah. No, so many butterfly species, but not all do have these sort of flashy, beautiful colors and yes, they are also generally active during the daylight hours when we humans are. So we just have more exposure to them. It is true that many moth species are nondescript. You know, they're shades of browns or gray, and they don't stand out as much.

[00:42:10] And you know, we're not hanging out in the middle of the night, usually outside in our garden spaces, so we're not seeing them. Mm-hmm. But I encourage everybody to just like, just do a little Googling about moths. There are some. Awesome species. Some of our giant moths, like the Giant, the Roia Moth, or the io moth, or the Polyphemus Moth, or the Luna Moth, they're huge, beautiful moths.

[00:42:33] The Luna Moth in particular has just such a beautiful, like a sea foam green color. There are, there are moths that look nothing like what you would think a moth would look like. Some of them look like wasps, some of them do fly during the day. So the, the, they're actually called hummingbird moths because they have these fat, furry bodies and short wings, and they fly during the day and they're almost as big as a hummingbird.

[00:42:57] So it, the, the name is like completely appropriate and you know, you would be. Easily fooled into thinking it was a hummingbird if you didn't get a close look at it. So mths themselves are just filled with diversity and forms and shapes that often, again, just go overlooked by us because we're not paying attention.

[00:43:16] And I guess that's another message that I'd love for folks to kind of think about a little bit more is that. We, we all can be naturalists. You know, my title at the National Wildlife Federation is naturalist, right? But anybody can be a naturalist. Like I don't, you don't, you can't get a degree in being a naturalist.

[00:43:34] A naturalist is just somebody who loves nature and wants to be outside in it and observes and learns, and then shares it and helps other people understand it. Right. That's all a naturalist is. So, you know, Charles Darwin was a naturalist. Jane Goodall is a naturalist. Steve Irwin was a naturalist, but your third grade teacher could have been a naturalist, right?

[00:43:57] Your local nature center employee is a naturalist. Your National Park service rangers are naturalists, right? Like anybody can be a naturalist, so don't be intimidated by that. But it really starts with just getting outside and looking around and paying attention. Put your device down for a minute. And I'm not bashing devices 'cause there's a lot of cool apps that can help you learn how to identify things in, in nature, whether they're bird calls or tracks or scat or whatever that I didn't have when I was growing up, learning all this stuff that I wish that I did.

[00:44:27] Right. But you know, it does, it does require you to sort of slow down a little bit. Get outside, use all your senses, you know, smell the air, listen, you know, not just with, and it's not just about your eyes, what you can see. You can, you can experience all sorts of cool wildlife and natural phenomenon if you, you know, through your other senses.

[00:44:47] It's not just about what you see, but that's where it really starts. And kids in particular, you know, are. Sadly not getting outside anywhere near as much as the previous generations. And we're seeing the results of that in terms of the negative health impacts of indoor children, right? That never get to go outside and explore nature.

[00:45:07] We know that kids that, you know, get to play in nature, learn about nature, and then they grow up into adults that know why it's important to protect nature, right? Yeah. So that's another big thing that the National Wildlife Federation is really committed to is, is helping to get. Everybody, but kids in particular, that time outdoors that we know is so hugely beneficial to them mentally, emotionally, physically.

[00:45:31] But that's also what we know, you know, helps people learn about why nature is important to protect.

[00:45:37] Alex Re: Yeah, definitely. And could you talk about some of the things that are causing issues for pollinators?

[00:45:44] David Mizejewski: Yeah, so pollinators, like many wildlife species, are hugely impacted by how we humans alter the landscape.

[00:45:53] And so that at its most basic level is habitat destruction. I. Habitat is the, the resources in nature that a species needs to survive. So for pollinators, what pollinators need are blooming plants and they, you know, they need plants that are pesticide free. So think about our typical suburban yard. It doesn't have many blooming plants.

[00:46:16] It's mostly lawn, and we douse it with pesticides. So it's no wonder that pollinators are disappearing. It's no wonder that the Monarch Butterfly, for example, which used to be super common found coast to coast, is now being proposed to be listed as a threatened species and protected under the Endangered Species Act.

[00:46:35] Their populations have plummeted. It's no surprise that many of our native bees particularly are bumblebees. So the rusty patched bumblebee that used to be super common in the Midwest and the Northeast is now also listed as an endangered species, but the Western bumblebee is disappearing. The Franklin's Bumblebee might actually already be extinct.

[00:46:56] The American bumblebee is rapidly disappearing right before our eyes, and that's just a tiny fraction of the bee species that are declining, right? So. This is, I mean, this is a bigger picture issue, right? There's agriculture implications, you know, especially with pesticides and, and just sort of the sheer volume of land that industrial agriculture takes up, right?

[00:47:18] But it's particularly germane for the average person who has an opportunity to transform their own little piece of the earth. Whether that is an acre, suburban, you know, backyard or five acres in a rural place, or even like I mentioned earlier, a little tiny green patch in a community garden in the middle of New York City.

[00:47:41] Right? Or any other urban area, right? We can help in particular pollinators because they need plants, and that's again, what Garden for Wildlife is all about and what that, you know, our Garden for Wildlife. Movement. Our, our, our focus in June is pollinators for this reason, because you can still be getting out there and planting the native plants that these pollinators need as a source of nectar, as a source of pollen.

[00:48:09] And then, you know, once those, those pollinators pollinate, it pollinate the plants, they're gonna put out the seeds and the nuts and the berries that feed the birds and feed the squirrels and feed the deer and feed the black. You know, it's all again. I keep saying it, it's all connected, but I can't not say it 'cause it's true.

[00:48:24] It's true. Every single case. Right? So the, so habitat loss in general is the elimination of our native plants in particular, and replacing them with non-native plants that don't have these ecological relationships with the wildlife, notably the pollinators. And so, and then replacing them, well, like I said, with lawn and the non, non-native ornamental plants.

[00:48:46] Instead of the ornamental native plants. Right? Like we can do that. So that's a big thing that we can all do that, that sort of solves for that habitat destruction issue. The other big thing is the pesticide issue. So here's the, the, the thing, when we spray pesticides, we're not just killing the, the mosquitoes or, you know, the carpenter ants that you think are getting into your house, but probably aren't.

[00:49:11] Right? We are. Killing all of these beneficial insect pollinators and it, it's kind of heartbreaking to me. I have seen a real uptick in people hiring companies to come out and spray these broad spectrum insecticides. So these are insecticides that will kill any kind of insect they come in contact with.

[00:49:33] All over their entire yard and the companies are like, oh, these are bees safe. And you know, they might be honey bee safe at night when the honeybees are all in their hives. But as we already talked about, the majority of our native bees, for example, don't live in hives. Guess where they're hanging out in the leaves and the vegetation.

[00:49:54] So when these companies are coming and spraying your yard to get rid of the mosquitoes, they're killing the bees. They're killing the caterpillars. They're killing the butterflies. It it, you know, it just, it's the reality. So, like I said, there are better ways of controlling mosquitoes and minimizing your chances of getting bitten.

[00:50:12] Simple things like. Put on repellent, you know, like it works. And you don't even have to use det, you know, you can use some of the herbal based ones, which are just as effective. You just have to apply them more often. You can, well, the, the number one thing is to eliminate breeding spots. 'cause most mosquitoes don't fly far from where they emerge out of the water, where they hatched and spent their larval phase.

[00:50:35] So, you know. Think about clogged gutters. That's one of the biggest sources of mosquitoes around your house. If you have little pools of water in your gutter, 'cause there's leaves in there, but any standing body of water around your yard, just empty it. If you have a bird bath, just dump it every couple of days.

[00:50:52] It takes mosquitoes. Five to seven days to go through that aquatic larval phase. So if there's any mosquito larvae or eggs in your bird bath, you just dump it out and they go, bye-bye. Right? You should be doing that anyway to keep it clean for the birds. Right? So, you know, avoiding those pesticides.

[00:51:07] Sticking with tried and true organic gardening methods that people have been using for millennia before we had any of these, you know, handpicking barriers, encouraging planting habitat gardens with the native plants to draw in those predatory and parasitic wasps to draw in the songbirds. To draw in the hummingbirds.

[00:51:28] To draw in the bats. They're gonna help keep all of these pest insects in check so you don't have to spray. Toxic pesticides everywhere. There's one other kind of very insidious pesticide that is harming our pollinators, and that is a group of, of pesticides known as neonicotinoids. And what these are, are systemic pesticides.

[00:51:50] So when a plant is treated with them, it gets absorbed into the plant system and is in every part of the plant. And it's, you know, they're, they're so effective at that, that like seeds that are treated. With neonicotinoids, we'll grow into plants that will have the neonicotinoid chemical throughout it.

[00:52:09] And unfortunately, even some of our native plants that are widely cultivated by the horticulture industry are subject to getting treated with some of these neonicotinoid pesticides, which means that if you are not a informed consumer, you might go. To a big box store and buy a purple cone flower that you think is gonna be great for the bees and you might inadvertently be poisoning the bees.

[00:52:34] So it's really important 'cause the, the, the neonicotinoid pesticide is in the pollen and it's in the nectar. I. And it's in the leaves. So if it's a Caterpillar host plant, they're gonna eat that. And they're, if it doesn't kill them outright, it's gonna weaken them. Right? And that's gonna make their survival long term.

[00:52:50] So what the, the way you navigate that is just be an informed consumer. Ask at your local garden center if these are treated plants with any kind of pesticide. And if the answer is yes, then take your business elsewhere. And, you know, I can educate people and be an advocate for this, but if. A hundred people with their hard earned dollars are walking into a garden center and saying, we wanna spend our money here, but only if you're not killing our pollinators.

[00:53:19] That's powerful. That's more powerful than 10 of me doing talks like this. So I really do hope people will, will go out there and be consumer advocates in that way. And that's how we're gonna get more organic, ornamental plants, native plants in production and more widely available. So. The key message with pollinators is plant native plants.

[00:53:40] Don't spray pesticides, reduce your lawn, you know, turn it into native plant, plant beds. And it's that simple. Like we really can say pollinators very, very easily if we all did this, even on a little small patch of our yards or other garden spaces. So it's, it's very achievable if we all do it.

[00:53:59] Alex Re: Yeah, absolutely.

[00:54:00] And I think it's so important to understand that one person can make an impact with their money and just with what they're consuming or what they're doing to their own lawn. And if you're not using pesticides, then you can actually create something really beautiful in your own backyard that you wouldn't be able to see unless you stopped using those harmful chemicals.

[00:54:27] David Mizejewski: A hundred percent and think about the incredible diversity of, of landscapes that we have across North America. Right. It's so sad to me. You know, I'm on, I'm on the East coast. I literally fly around the country and, you know, give talks and, you know, do events and media appearances, and I see the same landscapes.

[00:54:45] In California, that I do it in Maine, that I do in Florida. You know, like the same basic concept that I do in Arizona. And that's just like bonkers to me. We have this such rich diversity and natural history. Like why? Why don't we celebrate that? Why do we have to look exactly alike and be cookie cutter right to the detriment of all of our fellow species, you know?

[00:55:08] So. That's one of the best parts about committing to working with the native indigenous plants because you not only are gonna, that's the number one way that you'll help the local wildlife, but it's also like so cool to celebrate that. What makes where you live unique? I think so that's what we're hoping people will do is plant native.

[00:55:28] Stop spraying pesticides, reduce your lawn and it won't just be the pollinators that will benefit. It'll be all the other wildlife. And then you get to benefit. 'cause you get to see and observe these really cool creatures that are our fellow species that can live right alongside us, totally harmoniously if we just give them a little bit of habitat.

[00:55:45] It's that

[00:55:45] Alex Re: simple. That's, I think that's a perfect note to end it on. I, yeah. Thank you so much again, David, for coming on. I really appreciate it and I learned more than I ever thought I knew about pollinators today, so that, that's just amazing.

[00:56:01] David Mizejewski: Well, I appreciate it and that's like the biggest compliment you could give me.

[00:56:04] So I'm gonna, you know, walk away from this feeling really good. And yeah, I hope listeners enjoy it and they learn something too, and they commit to getting out there and helping the pollinators. Absolutely.

[00:56:16] Alex Re: David is such a pleasure to have on the show, and I can't thank him enough for sitting down with me and chatting about some of the most important animals on the planet.

[00:56:25] Without them, most of the things that we take for granted would be gone. So pollinators really deserve our love and respect. Now that we all learned how amazing pollinators are, we should support some organizations that are working to help their populations thrive, like the National Wildlife Federation pollinator.org, and the Zer Society.

[00:56:48] I also wanna thank everyone again for sticking with us through 150 episodes. You are the reason we've been able to do this for so long. And I can't wait to continue sharing animal knowledge with you. Thank you for coming on this adventure with me as we explored the world of pollinators. You can find the sources that we use for this podcast and links to organizations that we reference@onwildlife.org.

[00:57:13] You can also email us with any questions at On Wildlife dot podcast@gmail.com, and you could follow us on Instagram at On Wildlife or on TikTok at On Wildlife. And don't forget to tune in next month for another awesome episode, and that's on Wildlife.

[00:57:37] Jess Avellino: You've been listening to On Wildlife with Alex Re. On Wildlife provides general educational information on various topics as a public service, which should not be construed as professional financial, real estate, tax, or legal advice. These are our personal opinions only. Please refer to our full disclaimer policy on our website for full details.