UGA’s Great Pollinator Census Takes Place This Weekend

This weekend Georgians across the state will be making a difference in pollinator conservation by participating in the third annual Great Georgia Pollinator Census, you can be part of it.

The Pollinator Census takes place Friday and Saturday, August 19 and 20.

If you enjoy watching the butterflies and bees attracted to the flowers in your yard, you are invited to take 15 minutes out of your day this weekend to participate in the census.

This is a great and fun way for parents to engage children in learning about the important role pollinators play in our ecosystem.

Coordinated by the University of Georgia Extension Service, Becky Griffin is the Project Coordinator for the two-day event.

Griffin says, among other things, the census helps UGA’s Extension Service track pollinator populations.

“It provides data for researchers who do work on pollinator populations. And over time it will help us to spot trends in pollinator populations. Another reason, and my favorite reason for the project is it’s a way to help educate the public on the importance of pollinators and the diversity and numbers of pollinators in their yard so they can maybe improve their habitat or just learn to appreciate the insects that they have,” she explained.

Griffin said pollinator insects come in a variety of species, not just bees, and they all need to be counted.

“Technically a pollinator is anything that moves pollen from the male part of a plant to the female part of a plant. So, by broad definition, you and I are pollinators when we work in our gardens and move pollen around. But for the census we are looking at insect pollinators because insect pollinators are the most efficient pollinators; especially bees,” she said. “We are looking at honey bees, bumble bees, carpenter bees, and small bees, which is anything smaller than a honey bee. We also are looking for wasps, flies, and butterflies. And if somebody sees an insect that doesn’t fall into one of those categories it goes into the ‘Other’ insect category.”

It’s easy to take part in the pollinator census and Griffin said you can do it from your own backyard.

“It’s very simple. The first I would recommend is to go the pollinator website at https://ggapc.org/ and all the information on participating at home is there. So, you can insect-counting guide which teaches you how to tell a bumble bee from a carpenter bee that type of thing. There’s also an informational video there, there are counting sheets you can download. If you are interested in attending an event, because we have many across the state, you can follow our social media on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/georgiapollinatorcensus.

The Pollinator Census counting sheet can be downloaded from the UGA website at https://ggapc.org/.

This year Griffin said South Carolina via Clemson University is joining Georgia for the pollinator census and they’re asking South Carolina citizens to take part.

If you live in South Carolina and would like to participate in the count this weekend you can go online to the same UGA website to download the tally sheet.

When you’re done counting, you can go back to that same website and upload your counts.

You can also print out a certificate of participation to hang on your wall that says you participated in the Great Pollinator Census of 2022.

Rain date for the pollinator census is August 20 and 21.