Ch 13: A summary of threats and resource needs of wild pollinators

Ants

Resource Needs

Across Africa many will be familiar with ant-hills—they are one type of ant nest. Ants require areas of ground, decaying wood, and the canopy of trees for nesting.

To successfully establish an ant colony, they will also need an adequate prey food base. They also require to be near water, and to be protected from pesticide exposure.

Flies

Resource Needs

Flies will breed in a variety of places—in manure, rotting food, in rubbish for example.

Thrips

Resource Needs

Thrips require alternative host- plants to survive when crops are not in cultivation. They also need to be protected from pesticide exposure.

Butterflies

Habitat destruction due to activities like charcoal production presents the greatest threat to butterflies. Loss of host-plants, and larval host- plants prevent butterflies from finding sufficient food, and places to reproduce. Pesticide exposure also harms butterflies.

Resource Needs

Butterflies need access to wild nectar resources, and protection from pesticides.

Wasps

Resource Needs

Fig wasps can only breed in figs. To sustain fig wasps wild Ficus populations need to be conserved.

Wasps will prey on mosquitos, caterpillars, spiders, flies, or even beetle larvae, so a healthy environment is needed to have sufficient food for wasps.

Beetles

Resource Needs

Generally beetles need habitats with adequate host plants to thrive.

Bats

Bats are adversely affected by habitat destruction around them, loss of habitat along migratory routes, and when their roost sites are deliberately destroyed. In some parts of the world bats are hunted for food.

Resource Needs

Bats require: adequate food resources year-round, protection of communal roost sites, protection from hunting, available habitat for dispersal, and migration.

Sunbirds

There are numerous activities that threaten birds, including human disturbance of nesting, and roosting sites, exposure to pesticides and other toxins, habitat changes and degration, hunting, and loss of stopover sites needed on migration.

Resource Needs

Birds require healthy habitats to survive. Their nesting and breeding sites should not be disturbed, and they need protection from the misuse of pesticides, and unsustainable hunting practices.

Soil erosion and over grazing

Soil erosion and overgrazing affects pollinators by reducing the availability of safe long-term nesting sites. Removing wildflowers and the herbaceous ground- cover drastically reduces the number and diversity of bees, butterflies and other insects that can survive in an area

Wild Bees

All wild bee species require:

• Plants and flowers throughout the year for nectar and pollen
• Protection from destructive harvesting practices
• Migratory corridors of plants and flowers for species and varieties that migrate seasonally.

Carpenter bees also require tree branches, or old  wood to use as nesting sites

Leafcutter bees also require leaves from the right kinds of plants, which they will use in their burrows for nesting.

Halictid bees requirements for nectar and pollen peak when nesting as they provide each larva all of its food at one time.