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Applied Quiz: Pollinators and Wildlife

A second set of questions on this chapter, weighted toward using the ideas rather than recalling them. Each one puts you in a situation and asks what the chapter's framework says to do.

1. A gardener plants a bed packed with nectar flowers and is disappointed that butterflies visit but never seem to increase. What is she missing?

  1. She needs more nectar flowers
  2. Nectar feeds adults, but caterpillars need specific host plants; a garden with no host plants is a restaurant with no nursery — adults eat there but cannot raise the next generation
  3. Butterflies do not reproduce in gardens
  4. She should add a butterfly house
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. The chapter uses exactly this framing. Adults are generalists at the nectar bar; caterpillars are usually specialists. A monarch will drink from almost anything and lay eggs on nothing but milkweed.

Concept Tested: Host Plants vs. Nectar Plants

See: Chapter 6

2. Your garden blooms spectacularly from late June through August and has almost nothing in April or late September. Why does this chapter treat that as a problem rather than a preference?

  1. It isn't a problem — peak-season bloom is what pollinators need
  2. Pollinators need continuous bloom from early spring to late fall; the spring gap is especially damaging because overwintering queens emerge with no reserves, and the fall gap starves the generation that has to survive winter
  3. Spring-blooming plants are not native to Minnesota
  4. Only honeybees need early-season flowers
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. The chapter names bloom gaps as devastating, particularly in spring. Bree's own species makes it concrete: a rusty-patched queen emerging in April with nothing open nearby never founds a colony, and new queens that cannot fatten in September do not survive to spring.

Concept Tested: Continuous Bloom / Bloom Succession

See: Chapter 6

3. A tidy gardener cuts all perennial stems to the ground and rakes every leaf in October. What does this chapter say the cost is?

  1. There is no cost; fall cleanup is good garden hygiene
  2. Many native bees and butterflies overwinter as dormant adults or pupae in hollow stems and leaf litter, so a thorough autumn cleanup removes the overwintering habitat along with the mess
  3. It only affects non-native insects
  4. It harms plants but not insects
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. Bree's habitat tip is "leave the leaves," and the four-essentials list names overwintering habitat alongside food, nesting sites and water. The insects are physically inside the material being hauled away.

Concept Tested: Overwintering Habitat

See: Chapter 6

4. A landscaper installs a pollinator garden and mulches every square inch of bare soil to suppress weeds. What has that decision cost?

  1. Nothing — mulch helps plants and pollinators equally
  2. About 70% of native bee species nest in the ground and need patches of bare, undisturbed soil; a fully mulched bed removes their nesting habitat even though the flowers are there
  3. Mulch prevents flowers from blooming
  4. Only bumble bees are affected
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. Bree makes this point directly in the chapter — a perfectly mulched garden can be a housing crisis for native bees. Food and housing are separate requirements, and it is possible to provide one and eliminate the other in the same installation.

Concept Tested: Ground-Nesting Bees and Nesting Sites

See: Chapter 6

5. A squash bee's host plants are removed from a farm. Why can't it simply switch to the clover next door?

  1. It could, but it prefers squash
  2. Squash bees are oligolectic — they collect pollen from only one plant family — so losing the host plants means losing the bee; specialists cannot substitute
  3. Clover produces no pollen
  4. It would switch, so removal has no effect
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. Oligolecty is the chapter's term for pollen specialization, and it is why the chapter argues that preserving native plant diversity and preserving bee diversity are the same project. Generalists can absorb habitat loss; specialists go with their plant.

Concept Tested: Pollen Specialists (Oligolecty)

See: Chapter 6

6. A birder wants to attract more nesting chickadees and plants a row of ornamental non-native shrubs with lots of berries. What does the food web in this chapter predict?

  1. Success — berries are what chickadees feed their young
  2. Limited success — nestlings are fed caterpillars, not berries, and non-native plants host far fewer caterpillars than natives; a single chickadee clutch needs thousands
  3. Failure, because chickadees only nest in conifers
  4. Success, because all shrubs support the same insects
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. This is the chapter's central food-web insight: even birds we think of as seed eaters feed insects to their chicks. The link that matters runs native plant → caterpillar → nestling, and non-native ornamentals break it at the first step.

Concept Tested: Native Plants, Caterpillars and Songbirds

See: Chapter 6

7. Why does a monarch caterpillar eating a toxic plant end up safer rather than poisoned?

  1. Milkweed is not actually toxic
  2. Monarchs evolved to tolerate milkweed cardenolides and store them in their own tissue, so they become distasteful to predators — and the orange warning coloring advertises it
  3. Caterpillars avoid the toxic parts of the leaf
  4. The toxin breaks down as the caterpillar grows
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. The caterpillar sequesters the cardenolides rather than neutralizing them, and the bright coloring is aposematism — an honest warning signal. The toxin becomes the defense, which is why this partnership is one of the best-studied cases of co-evolution.

Concept Tested: Cardenolides and Aposematism

See: Chapter 6

8. Monarch numbers dropped sharply starting in the late 1990s. What does this chapter identify as a primary driver, and what follows from it?

  1. Increased predation; the fix is predator control
  2. Herbicide-tolerant crops eliminated milkweed from millions of acres of Midwestern farmland, so restoring milkweed in gardens, roadsides and conservation plantings is one of the most direct individual actions available
  3. Climate change alone; individual action cannot help
  4. Overcollection by butterfly enthusiasts
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. The chapter ties the decline to milkweed loss from agricultural land, and that diagnosis is what makes garden-scale action meaningful — the missing resource is a specific plant that individuals can put back.

Concept Tested: Milkweed Decline and Monarch Conservation

See: Chapter 6

9. You have a wet, low corner of the yard and want to support monarchs. Which milkweed does this chapter point to, and why not just plant Common Milkweed everywhere?

  1. Common Milkweed, since it is the primary monarch host
  2. Swamp Milkweed, which is suited to wet meadows and shorelines and is the better-behaved garden plant, while Common Milkweed spreads aggressively by rhizome
  3. Butterfly Milkweed, which prefers wet ground
  4. Any milkweed will do; they are ecologically identical
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. Minnesota's dozen milkweeds are split by habitat: Butterfly Milkweed for dry sand, Swamp Milkweed for wet ground, Whorled for dry prairie. Option C inverts Butterfly Milkweed, which is the driest-site species of the group.

Concept Tested: Matching Milkweed Species to Site

See: Chapter 6

10. Someone plans to spray a broad-spectrum insecticide on flowering plants "just once, early in the morning, so it's safer." Using this chapter, what is the response?

  1. Morning application is safe because pollinators are not active yet
  2. Never apply pesticides to blooming plants — the residue stays on flowers pollinators will visit later; if pest management is needed, use targeted approaches rather than broad-spectrum sprays
  3. Broad-spectrum sprays do not affect bees
  4. One application is always harmless
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. The chapter's guidance is specific: even small amounts of pesticide harm pollinators, and blooming plants are the worst possible target because the flower is the delivery route. Timing the spray for an empty garden does not remove the residue the bees arrive to later.

Concept Tested: Pesticide-Free Zones

See: Chapter 6