CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Ohio’s native pollinators are crucial for sustaining our food supply and maintaining vibrant floral landscapes. Following are some tips to help homeowners support the hundreds of pollinator species that call the Buckeye State home. Lori Gogolin, a senior horticulturist at , highlighted the diverse array of such pollinators.
“Bees, wasps, moths, butterflies, hummingbirds, beetles and even bats all play vital roles in pollination,” Gogolin said. Ohio's native pollinators are essential for sustaining our food supply and vibrant floral landscapes, horticulture experts say. Danae Wolfe, digital marketing manager for the Ohio branch of the Nature Conservancy, emphasized the region’s rich biodiversity, noting that Ohio is home to approximately 500 species of native bees and over 140 species of butterflies.
“Most people are likely familiar with the three Bs of the pollinator world -- bees, birds and butterflies -- but they may be less familiar with our more peculiar pollinators, which include flies, beetles, wasps, moths and even spiders,” Wolfe said. “While bees have evolved certain physiological and behavioral traits that make them our most efficient pollinators, many insects spend their days moving from flower to flower in search of pollen, nectar or prey. “Through this bloom-to-bloom movement, insects like hummingbird moths, hoverflies, paper wasps and jumping spiders inadvertently transfer pollen from one blossom to another.
” Gogolin and Wolf.
