Annuals and perennials are included in the study.

We currently do not have the resource to manually enter data. If you have a county agent or master gardener lead has agreed to enter the data into the form on your behalf, you can use this physical form DOWNLOAD. Please make sure you still complete the quiz, that your email (the observer, not the person entering the data online) is associated with the online form entry, and that the date/time are entered correctly in the online form.

2′ x2′  is recommended because it is manageable. Please stick to this patch size so the data are standardized across all observers.

Unfortunately, we are not supporting adding multiple plants within a specific observation, because we are trying to determine which specific plants are attracting the pollinators. Each 2′ x 2′ area should be for a single plant species, so that we can determine how attractive that specific plant species is to pollinators.

Although we do not have a set required commitment from our citizen scientists, the data set would greatly benefit if every citizen scientist contributed at least weekly to the database. Additionally, it would help if you looked at the same plants every week (until no longer in bloom); so make a selection of plants when you start and make an effort to revisit them at least weekly, if not more often than that! On the other end of the spectrum, we ask that you do not make observations on the same plot twice within the same day.

We are trying to only collect data from commercially available flowers. Please limit your data to those. The main objective of the study is to build a list of flowering plants that folks can purchase and plant in their landscapes that are beneficial to pollinators.

That’s a bit tricky; although we haven’t decided on an ‘official’ policy on including plants that are not right next to each other, our initial thoughts are that it’s ok, as long as you can count the number of pollinators within a 2’ x 2’ area within those 60-seconds. So if you have two 1×1 areas that are separated by just a couple of feet, you may be able to observe both of those plants together within those 60-seconds, and that would be ok. However, if a pollinator visits one of the 1 ‘ x 1’ plots and flies over to the next 1’ x 1’ plot that are being observed together, do not count that pollinator twice!

Yes, you can observe more than one patch each day.

The main purpose of our study is to evaluate pollinators. We ask you to continue counting beetles as well, unless the numbers are so high that they will detract from counting the bees and lepidoptera. We ask citizen scientists to estimate the number of beetles when numbers are high (40 or more) and focus on counting the other categories.

Both can attend/watch the training webinar together, but will need to complete the pollinator quiz separately with your own respective emails. Details on the quiz will be available during the webinar, through email shortly after the webinar, and on our project website.

We have pre-filled the latin name options based on last year’s entries. If your plant is not in there, please select “Other”, and in the coming weeks, your plant will be added to the latin names. We’ll keep you posted on when we update the form to include more latin names, so that you won’t have to full type them out every time!

Yes. If a plant is not in bloom, there’s no point in making observations on it. We want to determine the attractiveness of a plant based on when it has flowers present.

Yes, as long as you’re being consistent with your observation times. Zeroes are important data, too, because it tells us which plants may not be very good for attracting pollinators.

We are making the assumption that citizen scientists aren’t going to be making observations in the pouring rain! The survey asks what time of day you are making your observation and the outdoor temperature; so we can take those into account in our analyses. For that reason, it’s ok if you make observations at the same time or slightly different times for any given day.

Yes, bumble bees carry pollen on their “pollen baskets” (corbicula) located on their hind legs while also drinking nectar.

The design of bee hotels is up to the creativity of the designer. These are as much art projects as they are beneficial to pollinators and other beneficial insects.

Africanized honey bees are more aggressive, in general, than non-Africanized honey bees. In my experience, they are most dangerous when you get near their hives. Individual bees foraging on flowers, Africanized or not, shouldn’t pose a hazard as you are making observations, just approach with caution no matter what.

Only genetic testing can determine the difference between Africanized and non-Africanized honey bees. They’re not visually distinguishable.

There are many beetles that visit flowers to feed on nectar and pollen (e.g., lady beetles, soldier beetles, tumbling flower beetles, etc.). Some species are more effective pollinators than others, but that is beyond the scope of these observations. Please record any beetle you find visiting your flower patch.

 If you observed a “bee” that has fly eyes, it is probably a fly. See the recorded discussion or Identification Guide 2020 to learn about “look-alikes.”

Only record wasps and other insects that visit the flowers in your patch. In most cases, predatory wasps are at flowers to feed on nectar, not other insects.

Wasps are recorded as “Wasp.”

Yes! Click here to download a PDF of the pollinator training presentation.