{"id":404,"date":"2025-08-01T14:40:52","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T18:40:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/paulding\/?p=404"},"modified":"2025-07-15T14:41:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T18:41:13","slug":"pollinators-the-worlds-lifeline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/paulding\/2025\/08\/pollinators-the-worlds-lifeline\/","title":{"rendered":"Pollinators: The World\u2019s Lifeline"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Without pollinators, people and earth\u2019s environment would be in jeopardy. Of the 1,400 crop plants grown around the world, those that produce all our food and plant-based industrial products, almost 80% require pollination by animals. Visits from bees and other pollinators also result in larger, more flavorful fruits and higher crop yields. We have pollinators \u2014 such as bees, butterflies, birds, and bats \u2014 to thank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Cabbage
Cabbage moths on purple vervain. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Humans depend on plant pollination for many resources, including much of the food we eat. A dessert such as chocolate-covered strawberries requires pollination of strawberry plants by bees and cacao trees by flies. Medicines are derived from animal-pollinated flowering plants or developed to mimic compounds discovered in plants. Cotton used in clothes is made from the fluff on the seeds of plants that were bee pollinated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Common
Common bumble bee on goldenrod.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A pollinator is any creature that helps carry pollen from one flower to another, allowing the plant to become fertilized and produce fruit, seeds, and young plants. While some plants are self-pollinating or rely on the wind or water to do pollination, around 75% of the flowing plants on earth are pollinated by insects, birds, and mammals. Many of these plants are important for our food, medicine, fuel, or fiber. Most people are familiar with bees and butterflies as pollinators, but moths, flies, beetles, birds, and even some small mammals can be pollinators. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Monarch
Monarch butterfly on blackeyed Susan.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Many pollinators are declining due to habitat loss, disease, and contamination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can help!<\/h3>\n\n\n\n