By: Marikay Shellman, BPW Colorado Virtual Chair, NFBPWC Environment and Sustainable Development Committee (2022-2024) 

We all know that bugs are disappearing at an astounding rate.  We can all do something to help no matter how small your yard, even if it’s just a deck or balcony.  In that little “piece of Earth that you can influence” (Douglas Tallamy), you can create a microhabitat with small features including a rock, water source, leafy area.  This will provide bugs with shelter, food, water, and the ability to reproduce.  Hang up that rake and put away that leaf blower!  Leaving dead leaves, stems, brush piles (sticks in a flowerpot), you are providing not only nutrition for your soil, but also habitat for tiny insects. 

Don’t clean up the stems of perennial plants because seed heads provide feed for goldfinches and the stems provide shelter for overwintering insects and habitat for stem-nesting bees.  Plants will grow around them in the spring and many solitary native bees will nest in these stems yearround.  Notice as the weather warms that some stems have their

 ends blocked with mud or leaves or pebbles, possibly resin indicating that there is a nest inside.  Natural materials such as stems are a much healthier option than bee blocks and bee hotels.   

Creating habitat for Stem-Nesting bees is as easy as leaving dead flower stalks intact over the winter months.  When Spring arrives, cut back the dead flower stalks at varying heights from 8-24 inches and leaving the dead stumble to decompose naturally on the ground.  Female bees emerge and start nests in newly cut stems or stems laying on the ground.  As summer progresses, the new plant growth hides the dead flower stalk in which bee larvae are developing.  These native bees emerge in later summer months and repeat this cycle again.   

Stem-nesting bees frequently use Hyssop (Agastache), Echinacea, Sunflowers, Blazing Star (Liatris), Bee Balm 

(Monarda), Goldenrods (Solidago) Asters, Raspberries and other bramble bushes, Sumac (Rhus), and Elderberry. 

Bringing Back Pollinators is as easy as not tidying up your yard and garden so much.