Farming and land management practices are not always conducive for pollinators because farmers are trying to manage a single crop in a large area. 

“Pollinators need diverse habitats. They need a lot of different forages available throughout the year. They also need host material. Think about butterflies and moths. They have caterpillars so they need plants that will host those caterpillars,” explains Ben Powell, coordinator of Clemson University’s Apiculture and Pollinator Program. 

Parasitoids and moths, as well as bees and butterflies, are all valuable pollinators that can find a place on a farm. “If we’re going into a farm field, and we’re suppressing our pests all the time, we’re inadvertently suppressing the predators and the parasitoids that could be helping us out,” Powell says.  

Speaking at the Pee Dee Research and Education Center Field Day Aug. 29 in Florence, Powell encourages farmers to find a place on their farm for pollinator habitat. That could be a field that isn’t that productive for cash crops, a roadside, or a pond bank.  

“The idea is can we provide some places on the farm that are not cultivated as harborage or habitat for these things and then hopefully get a little spillover. If we could provide habitat where we’re building up populations of these parasitic wasps, these predatory wasps and flies, those increasing populations are going to drift over into our crop and then knockdown things like caterpillars, stinkbugs and other serious pests in the crop,” Powell said. 

A honey bee pollinates a purple coneflower. (Photo/Stephanie Sokol)

Powell encourages farmers to plant a wide variety of native plants to provide pollinator habitat, to provide food for honeybees and conservation habitats for pollinators. Examples include purple coneflowers, spotted beebalm and Blackeyed Susans.  

“The other thing, too, is that by having a steady source of flowers providing nectar and pollen, you’re building your pollinators as well as your predators and parasitoids. Some of our crops like soybean and cotton benefit from having pollinators in the area as well,” Powell said. 

Funding for pollinator habitats 

Powell said USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service provides funding to help farmers install pollinator habitats on working farms. He encourages farmers to take advantage of the program.  

“The problem is they (NRCS) provide guidance on what and how to plant but don’t really tell you what to do once it’s in. There’s not a lot of guidance on maintenance. These are not crop systems that we’re used to. We’re not making a lot of money directly off these plants,” Powell said. 

The one-acre pollinator research plot at the Pee Dee Research and Extension Center in Florence is designed to attract a wide range of pollinators, including bees, butterflies, and parasitoids. (Photo/Ben Powell)

At the Pee Dee Research and Education Center, Powell and his team are managing 26 pollinator plots in a one-acre field. Powell says the plots were put into place to test different pollinator management strategies, such as mowing, discing, trampling, burning, and targeted herbicides. 

“We mow once a year at the end of the winter then we have another plot where we mow mid growing season to knock down the canopy and see if we can release some things underneath. We are trampling so we take the tractor with a cultipacker and just smash things down. We are also burning,” he said. 

The idea is to maintain the system to improve diversity in an effective and economical way.  

“The take home there is the maintenance on these things is actually pretty easy. It’s really once a year in the wintertime when you’re not really spending a whole lot of time on your crop systems or your farm fields; you can come in and do your maintenance, whether it’s burning, mowing, trampling, so forth, and you get some pretty good returns,” he said.