Million Pollinator Garden Challenge

America in Bloom

The Million Pollinator Garden Challenge, a campaign to register a million public and private gardens and landscapes to support pollinators, is a nationwide call to action to preserve and create gardens and landscapes that help revive the health of bees, butterflies, birds, bats, and other pollinators across America. The MPGC is an initiative of the National Pollinator Garden Network, of which America in Bloom is a partner.

Pollinators are responsible for one out of three bites of food we take, yet pollinators are at a critical point in their own survival. We know that providing more nectar and pollen sources via flowering plants and trees will help improve their health and numbers. Increasing the number of pollinator-friendly gardens and landscapes will help revive the health of bees, butterflies, birds, bats and other pollinators.

Designed to accelerate growing efforts across America, the Million Pollinator Challenge was created in support of President Barack Obama's call to action to reverse the decline of pollinating insects, such as honey bees, native bees, and monarch butterflies. Strong resident engagement can restore pollinator populations to healthy levels. Pollinator gardens provide one way to reverse that decline by offering food, water, cover and places to raise young for honey bees, native bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and other pollinators.

The Million Pollinator Challenge is rallying hundreds of thousands of gardeners, horticultural professionals, schools, and volunteers to help create a million pollinator gardens over the next two years. Any individual can contribute by planting for pollinators and joining this effort. Every habitat of every size counts, from window boxes and garden plots to farm borders, golf courses, school gardens, corporate and university campuses. Everywhere we live, work, play and worship can, with small improvements, offer essential food and shelter for pollinators.

National Garden Bureau (NGB), the non-profit organization promoting gardening on behalf of the horticulture industry, is pleased to partner with American in Bloom to support and encourage communities to add pollinator habitats as part of their commitment to creating a vibrant community.

Diane Blazek, NGB executive director, commented, "National Garden Bureau continues to partner with outstanding organizations to help plant 1 million new pollinator gardens by the end of 2016. What makes the partnership with America in Bloom so special is that by reaching out to communities that participate in the America in Bloom national awards program, we are really reaching hundreds of thousands of individual residents; every one of them can make an impact on the lives of pollinators."

Evelyn Alemanni, AIB board member, stated that via a donation from NGB, every attendee at the America in Bloom symposium and awards program in Holland, Michigan, will receive a seed collection so they can do their part to create more pollinator gardens across America. The program takes placed on September 24-26.

More information about ways to nurture pollinators is at http://millionpollinatorgardens.org/.

By Paul Schattenberg

Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service

While traveling down CA Roan Drive in Rowlett recently, people have been exposed to an "eerie" sight on a number of trees lining that route, said Mike Merchant, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service urban entomologist in Dallas.

"CA Roan Drive is a quiet stretch of road running through Lakeside Park South in the Dallas suburb of Rowlett," Merchant said. "But in the trees along a football field-length stretch of the drive, the spiders have been taking over."

Merchant said "glistening webs are draping the trees like shrouds at Lakeside Park," near Lake Ray Hubbard.

"Someone stepping off the road for a closer look will see thousands of lanky spiders darting among the webs that extend up to 40 feet into the trees," he said. "There is a surreal quality to the extensive webbing covering these trees."

Merchant said while rare, it is not unheard of that such massive web-works may appear once in a while. For example, he said, in 2007 the media reported about a giant spider web found at Lake Tawakoni State Park, about 35 miles from Rowlett.

"At the time, the discovery of the web was more than creepy - it was a revelation to many arachnologists - spider experts," he said. "That's because spiders typically work alone to construct their webs. So finding spiders working together to build a huge web in what was more of a cooperative or 'communal' scenario was a real surprise for many experts."

Merchant said in the case of the giant web that appeared in 2007, the spiders responsible for the nest construction were ultimately identified as Tetragnatha guatemalensis.

"Arachnologists had previously noted that this species is known to build communal nests when conditions are right," he said. "But it is rare to see them building such large nests in the U.S. Spider experts have indicated that those 'right conditions' appear to include a glut of small insects like midges that emerge at night from lakes. Without lots of food, these communal webs just don't seem to form."

"These types of spiders are unusual in that they are not aggressive to other spiders of the same species on the same web," he said. "They also are not known to bite or be harmful to humans."

Because of their lack of aggression, Merchant said there is really no need to treat for them.

"Insecticides or other treatments are really unnecessary as this spider is essentially harmless and, although the communal nest may look spooky, they too are basically benign and are a sight more to be appreciated than feared."

Many arachnologists and others consider these nests natural works of art, he said.

"If you get the chance to take a drive along CA Roan Drive in Rowlett, you might want to take a few moments to stop and admire this spider handiwork. But please don't touch the art."