It seems like everywhere we go these days, we hear about ‘pollinators this’ and ‘pollinators that’, but what’s the big deal anyway? And why is everyone suddenly talking about caterpillars?

Let’s start with Bee City Canada’s definition of pollination: it is “the movement of pollen from the male parts of flowers (the anther) to the female parts of flowers (the pistil), allowing for fertilization and seed and fruit production”. Okay, so that means that if a plant doesn’t get properly pollinated, it won’t be able to complete its life cycle by making seeds to reproduce. That’s not so good for the future of the plant’s population.

So who are the pollinators?

They come in many animal forms - bees, butterflies, moths, flies, beetles, birds, bats and even some frogs! Most often it is the insects feeding on pollen and nectar in the flowers that wind up carrying some of that pollen to another flower that is patiently waiting for it, so we’ll look more deeply at the relationship between insects and flowering plants. Entomologist and Wildlife Ecologist Doug Tallamy (2021) explains that many of these insects and plants have co-evolved over millennia and depend on one another for survival. Many of our native insects are specialist feeders, meaning that they MUST eat a certain plant in order to survive.

Take the monarch for example; it has co-evolved with milkweed (Asclepias spp.) to be one of the only animals able to digest the toxins found in the sap. It lays its eggs on milkweed species where the larvae are free to feed and fatten up. But if there aren’t many milkweed plants growing, there won’t be many monarch butterflies reproducing. And some plants depend on their specialist insects to ensure pollination. Like tubular shaped flowers that require a long proboscis from a moth or butterfly to reach the pollen.

Why is the survival of native plants and insects so important?

Well, it’s because everything is connected. Plants capture energy from the sun and turn it into food that supports ALL LIFE on Earth. If that energy isn’t available to the animals, then there will be no more animals. That’s a bit of a scary thought.

No insects = no plants. No plants = no life.

What should we do?

Let’s add some native plants to the land!

But why are caterpillars important?

For two reasons really. First, they are the butterfly and moth babies, and we know that butterflies and moths are important for pollination. The second reason has to do with birds. We often see birds eating at feeders, or plucking berries and seeds off of shrubs, or pulling the odd worm out of the ground, but what decades of research has found, is that birds need access to an EXTRAORDINARY amount of insects to feed their young. And the most popular, nutritious, squishy baby food for young birds are caterpillars. Chickadees, for example, require 6000 to 10,000 caterpillars just to raise one clutch of fledglings! (Brewer, 1961.)

Imagine how many the bigger birds, like woodpeckers, must need! And not just any caterpillar will do - this juicy monarch will not be palatable to the birds because it carries toxins from its host plant, milkweed. So if there aren’t the right plants to attract the right butterflies and moths to lay their eggs on, there won’t be the right kinds of caterpillars to support the baby birds who can’t yet forage for themselves.

No caterpillars = no birds. No birds = an unimaginable world.

What should we do?

Let’s add some native plants to the land!

Book a consultation below!

Resources:

How to find which plants are native to your area:

• Pollinator Partnership Canada: Enter your postal code for a list of native plants for your region!

• Canadian Wildlife Federation: Native plant suppliers list

Read more:

• Bee City Canada: About Pollinators

• Xerces Society: Native Plants for Pollinators and Beneficial Insects (Great Lakes)

• Brewer, R. 1961. Comparative notes on the life history of the Carolina Chickadee.

• Tallamy, Douglas W., 2021. Why local native plants.