How-to-guide Develop a Pollinator Plan for your school

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Why is pollination important? 

To make a seed, plants have to move pollen from one flower to another flower of the same type. This movement of pollen is called pollination. Without it, there would be no seeds, and without seeds, there would be no plants. This matters to us because plants provide a large part of our diet, as well as other resources we depend upon. It matters not only to humans – wild plants also provide food and shelter to most of our wildlife (birds, mammals, and insects). We also shouldn’t forget that it is those wild plants that make our island a colourful and attractive place to live.

WHO are our pollinators?

 In Ireland, some plants are pollinated by the wind, but most are pollinated by insects, including bees, hoverflies, butterflies, moths, beetles, wasps and ants. Most insect pollination is carried out by bees. We have one type (species) of managed honeybee and 98 different wild bees. This includes 21 bumblebee species and 77 solitary bee species. If we want to protect pollination, we need healthy honeybees, but we also need to have lots of wild bees as well as other insects.

Bees are our most important pollinators because, unlike other insects, they feed their young only on pollen. Adult bees spend their entire lives visiting flowers trying to collect as much pollen as possible. They need to be able to visit lots of different flowers so that they can bring different kinds of pollen back to the nest so their young can have a healthy diet. The way we look after our landscape has changed over the last 50 years, and unfortunately it is now difficult for bees and other insects to survive. One third of our 99 bee species are threatened with extinction from the island of Ireland. If we want them to provide the free pollination service we depend on, we must all take steps to help our bees.