Natural attraction

Anita Potts said she'd never really thought of planting a garden for bees.

That is, until the Jacksonville resident heard Lisa Jackson's talk on attracting butterflies and bees to a garden.

Jackson, from the N.C. Entomological Society and a national program staff scientist with the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, was the guest speaker Saturday at the Onslow County Library and gave two lectures: one on attracting butterflies and bees and another on insects.

"Native insects are losing habitat," she said. "People would be amazed at what they can do in a small urban garden, and it's also fun to watch all the different plants and bugs and things you attract to your yard."

Potts and Adele Hyla-Brewster, also of Jacksonville, said they came to the lectures because they both enjoy gardening and were interested in plantings that attract butterflies - and now bees, since they learned bees are endangered, but a change in landscape could help.

"Honeybees - that's a real concern," Hyla-Brewster said. "We could lose some of our food supply, or it could become scarce and costs could really increase."

Jackson explained that Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has resulted in the loss of 50 to 90 percent of bee colonies across the U.S.

She said scientists studying the disorder are still unsure what causes it.

"Over 100 of our crop species require insect pollinators," Jackson said. "Scientists at USDA and universities are still trying to figure out CCD - we don't even quite know what it is yet."

She said a loss of habitat and native nectar because of development and loss of agricultural land is also leading to a decline in the species.

"It has become increasingly important we provide them with additional resources, even in our small urban gardens, so we can try to keep populations up," Jackson said. "Bees go hand in hand with our agriculture."

Jackson listed different easy-to-grow plants that attract butterflies and bees, explaining which plants provide nectar and which also provide food and shelter for larvae and caterpillars.

But it isn't just bees that could use additional digs - she said butterflies need help, too.

"Milkweeds and nectar sources are declining due to development and the widespread use of herbicides in croplands, pastures and roadsides," she said. "Because 90 percent of all milkweed/monarch habitats occur within the agricultural landscape, farm practices have the potential to strongly influence monarch populations."

Jackson said monarchs annually migrate from the U.S and Canada to spend winter in Mexico and Canada and return in the spring to breed, so food and shelter sources are vital to its successful journey and future populations.

Monarch butterfly waystations, places that provide milkweeds - the host plant of monarchs - and nectar sources for monarch butterflies, can help.

Twins Darius and Dasan McElroy, 11, were particularly interested in getting a waystation seed kit so they could establish their own in their yard in Hubert.

"At our house in California we used to see a lot of monarchs," Dasan said.

"We have already seen butterflies and hummingbirds - we have two hummingbird feeders in our yard here, and we have a butterfly bush in a big container," Darius said. "We should get lantana and roses, and get a waystation kit - we need to get milkweed and some parsley and cilantro too."