Making the most out of moths and other unsung heroes of pollination

CBC News

· Posted: May 03, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 22 minutes ago

With outpouring good underway, gardening enthusiasts are becoming anxious to drawback their shovels and seeds.

And they're being urged to enactment pollinators successful the process.

Kaushal Rathnayake, a pollinator biologist astatine the University of New Brunswick, says there's overmuch to see astir a pollinator garden, including  which coloured flowers to plant, wherever those plants travel from, and which pollinators they'll enactment most.

With pollinators, what usually comes to caput archetypal are bees and butterflies.

But moths, flies, beetles and hummingbirds are the unsung heroes of pollination successful New Brunswick, said Rathnayake, who is besides a unpaid teacher astatine the Fredericton Botanic Garden:.

Moths are particularly important and easy forgotten about, due to the fact that they enactment astatine night. 

"More than butterflies and bees, moths tin beryllium very, precise businesslike successful their pollinator service," helium said.

While butterflies and moths look similar, their bodies person antithetic characteristics that go important to the pollination process. 

"Moths are truthful hairy that erstwhile they onshore connected flowers, they get a batch of pollen attached to their bodies," Rathnayake said, dissimilar butterflies, that don't person overmuch hairsbreadth connected their bodies. 

These pollinators transfer pollen from the antheral portion of a angiosperm to the female, allowing fertilization and effect production, helium said.

The process is usually done unintentionally as antithetic taxon get nectar from flowers, which is wherefore feathers and hairsbreadth are important characteristics for collecting and transferring pollen. 

WATCH | It's not conscionable bees that payment from what you works this spring: 

While astir birds don't pollinate, the process itself is captious for supplying birds with a accordant nutrient supply. 

"Moths besides nutrient tons of caterpillars and you request moths successful your location gardens due to the fact that the birds emotion to devour them."

"So erstwhile we works autochthonal pollinator gardens, we're not conscionable supporting bees — we're strengthening section nutrient webs, expanding autochthonal works diversity, and fostering vigor travel done the ecosystem. That successful crook helps prolong bird populations and reinforces biodiversity crossed the board."

Rathnayake said butterfly caterpillars are often not palatable for birds and tin adjacent person defence mechanisms that marque them toxic oregon hard to eat. Whereas moth caterpillars are a juicy and nutritious snack for birds. 

He said we tin enactment moths by planting flowers they tin spot successful the dark. That's wherefore helium recommends planting achromatic flowers that person a beardown fragrance.

"Also, they would emotion to spell for our blueberries and the different berries that we turn successful our area, Rathnayake said. "So we tin works these successful our location gardens to work these pollinators."

New Brunswick is location to galore beauteous moth species, specified arsenic the luna moth and primrose moth, and each has its  ain big plants. Rathnayake said planting an evening primrose flower, for example, would beryllium specifically beneficial for the primrose moth. 

He said pollinators similar to beryllium effectual successful their work, truthful they are astir apt to question retired plants that execute the champion successful their environment. This is wherefore it's important to usage arsenic galore autochthonal plants arsenic possible. 

"The situation works arsenic an vigor transportation system," Rathnayake said. "So pollinators, erstwhile they're surviving successful 1 peculiar area, usually similar to spell for the astir energy-contributing plants that are evidently autochthonal plants."

LISTEN | Pollinator biologist explains however to marque an effectual pollinator garden: 

He said bees inactive reign ultimate for pollination successful New Brunswick and they are going to question retired flowers with bluish and yellowish tones and a beardown fragrance with ample pollen potential. 

"These plants person thing called pollinator syndromes," Rathnayake. "We place that arsenic shapes, colours and smells that are specialized for these bee pollinators.

"So bees spell for these plants and they emotion that and they're similar ace attractants." 

Here are immoderate autochthonal flowering plants to try: 

• Aster 

• Joe Pye weed

• Solidago (or goldenrods) 

• Sink foil

• Hepatica 

• Penstemon heisters (or hairy beardtongue) 

• Penstemon digitalis (or foxglove) 

• Swamp rose

• Meadowsweet

• Columbine

While immoderate of these flowers mightiness look challenging to pollinate owed to their tubular shape, Rathnayake says bees successful peculiar usage a method called "buzz pollination" which involves vibrating to loosen and dislodge pollen. 

Flower gardens aren't the lone spot we tin enactment pollinators, said Rathnayake. 

"I cognize astir of you are gardening these days and you're gardening your nutrient for us, but wherefore don't you deliberation astir plants that are having these bully small coloured flowers similar the bush beans," helium said. 

"They are truly reddish and they're truly bully for the hummingbirds." 

Here are immoderate edible plants to try: 

• Cucurbits (including quash, pumpkin, zucchini) 

• Blueberries

• Raspberries

• Tomatoes 

• Chives

• Dill

• Eggplant 

• Nastarium 

Rathnayake said the champion pollinator gardens are the messiest ones, and it's important to not weed astatine this clip of year. 

"Why not effort to beryllium a bully neighbour and support your tract unmowed, so the plants similar dandelions tin travel successful and enactment pollinator work," helium said.