Who is excited for spring? Spring is when we can look forward to baby birds, animals, plants, and… insects?? As much as sometimes don’t like them, insects are essential to our ecosystems. Read on to learn a bit more about the importance of these little guys to our big world!
Image from Lunar Baboon Comics at www.lunarbaboon.com/comics/bee
Did you know that pollinators are needed to fertilize 1/3 of the food we eat? Most pollinators are insects - including flies, beetles, ants, and mosquitoes (!) – but hummingbirds also pollinate flowers, and in tropical parts of the world, bats, monkeys, and even lizards are important pollinators too! However, bees still take on most of the pollination of plants that we rely on.
Image from Your Wild City comics at www.yourwildcity.com/comic/urban-pollinators
You’ve probably heard all about the importance of bees – but how many bees would you recognize? There are over 300 species of bees in Alberta, most of which are sweat bees, which are less than 2mm in length! Many of these bees don’t have stripes, and so are usually mistaken for flies. And just to complicate matters further, there are many other insects that in turn look like bees even though they aren’t!
Image from Bird and Moon Science and Nature Cartoons at www.birdandmoon.com/comic/bee-club
It looks like there is still much to be learned about bees! Read our Protecting Pollinators page to learn more about these interesting and very important creatures.