How Severe Weather Affects Pollinators
Ohio is known for its fair share of crazy storms (especially this summer), but have you ever wondered how they impact pollinators? Severe storms, high winds, and heavy rainfall negatively impact pollinators like bees, butterflies, and birds by causing physical injury or displacement, destroying critical floral resources, diluting flower nectar, and degrading pollen viability.
For centuries honey bees have been the original meteorologist, able to detect shifts in the air pressure before a storm, the bees will scramble to return to their hives before a storm hits.
When storms hit, strong winds and heavy rain can injure or displace bees, butterflies, birds, and other pollinators. Many seek shelter close to the ground, beneath leaves, in grasses, shrubs, or on the protected sides of trees. Storms can also disrupt pollination itself. Heavy rain may physically damage flowers and increase the risk of disease. Rain can dilute the nectar that flowers provide as a food reward, making them less attractive to pollinators. Strong winds may also carry insects far from their normal feeding areas, leaving gardens quieter even after the storm has passed.
Planting native plants and pollinators in your garden is an important step towards helping our pollinators during inclement weather seasons. A storm may pass in hours, but its effects on pollinators and pollination can last much longer. Supporting healthy pollinator gardens is one way we can help these essential creatures recover and return to our landscapes.