Important Pollinators

A pollinator is anything that helps carry pollen from the male part of the flower (stamen) to the female part of the same or another flower (stigma). The movement of pollen must occur for the plant to become fertilized and produce fruits, seeds, and young plants.

This video shows a metallic sweat bee and a hover fly doing the work of collecting pollen and doing the important work of pollination. Sometimes the pollen can be a little too much and require some maintenance as seen by the hover fly using its legs as windshield wipers.

Here is a sunflower in my garden being visited by a bee. Sometimes the pollen can get a little sticky and make the bee have to work a little harder. It is a lot of work to carry all that extra weight. Bees are tough workers that never complain, they don’t get paid, and keep our planet health. Without Bees and other pollinators, life on earth would not exist.