For the Love of Pollinators with Carrie Driehaus

Queen City Pollinators began over a cup of coffee at The Upside Brew and a newfound love for bees. Fully caffeinated, Carrie Driehaus and Jenny O’Donnell set out on a mission to support our city’s pollinators through education, conservation, and collaboration with a multitude of nature-based organizations and local schools. We met up with Carrie this Spring to hear how it all started, score tips for supporting pollinators, and her message on why we should care about these special six-legged creatures. 

P.S. Did you know autumn is a FANTASTIC time to start a pollinator garden?

Interview by Suzanne Wilder with support from Chrissy Douglas and Chelsie Walter.

Photography by Chelsie Walter.

Did you have a background in something tied to plants or pollinators before Queen City Pollinators began?

So my bachelor's degree is in anthropology, and I have an international executive MBA.   As my twins were getting a little bit older, I was looking for things to do. I started to get into macro photography. I began taking pictures of flowers because I just thought they were pretty. Then I realized that there were all these insects on them, which I had sort of been afraid of. I thought insects were kind of scary. 

But, I realized they didn't care that I was there. And I could get really close and they'd just be like, ‘Hey you, no big deal.’ And then I was like, well, ‘Why don't they care?’ And I just started Googling and then it just spiraled from there. I started reading about monarch butterflies because I thought they needed saving, and that there was a way to do it. 

And I kept [honey] bees, but then the more I researched, the more I learned. I found out honeybees are not the ones that are in need of saving, it's our native bees, and we have hundreds of native species of bees. Those are the ones that are declining, so our bumblebees, our mason bees, our leafcutter bees. You have this native bee population, and when you introduce 30,000 new [honeybee] mouths that need nectar and pollen, there is this giant competition.

Honeybees can actually compete with our native bees. What we have learned, however, and what we have decided at QCPP, is that because most of the bees are solitary, it’s really hard to find their stories. Because there's one that lives in a hole over here, there's one that lives in a stick over here. But because we have honeybee colonies with 30,000 or 50,000 bees, they can be our storytellers. 

How did you and Jenny [co-founder] come together and decide to start an organization? 

I had been keeping beehives for about a year and she had just started. She met my ex-husband at a meeting, and they became Facebook friends. She put on Facebook that she had this new honeybee hive and needed some help. 

[She asked] ‘Are there any beekeepers around?’ and he said, ‘Oh hey, you know my wife is a beekeeper.’ So, she called me, and you know, sometimes you just click with people. And she said, ‘I really need help. I'm not sure what to do. Can you come over and just take a look at my hive and help me out?’ I was like, ‘Yeah sure.’ 

We just hit it off immediately. We just felt like we had ways to make an impact, it was something that was missing for us before. We had all these ideas and all this passion, but no way to filter it into real life. 

So we just kept talking, and then we came up with this idea. I kind of had already talked about it, I had come up with a name already, and I thought, I wanna do this organization. She said, I run a nonprofit, I know how to do that. And so I can take care of that part. We were both beekeepers. I was teaching environmental science and after-school programs. 

I was teaching at John G. Carlisle Elementary in Covington, and we had a garden. It was amazing. And there was another teacher there, her name's Sylvana Ross. She said, okay, let's call Sylvana, you're gonna love her. 

With the three of us together, we were all lifting each other up all the time. It just felt so amazing to be together and form our ideas and think together. 

It was just kind of magical. The three of us ran with it, and got it off the ground. Sylvana came in a little bit later, but not that much, she helped build it. And what's fun is we all have a 20-year difference: Sylvana’s 20 years younger than I am, and I'm 20 years younger than Jenny is. That's part of the reason why it's working, is that the three of us together – we fan the flames of joy and passion and excitement for what we do. 

How has the organization evolved? Tell us about the work that you do. 

We started with just trying to do some library talks and talking to schools. It was based on the work that I was doing with the after-school program. I have an observation beehive, it's just like a wooden box with plexiglass. And it's this whole sensory experience where we have the kids put their hands on the plexiglass to feel the buzzing. 

It's this awe-inspiring, lovely experience. So it started that way, and we're looking at more research in community science now. We're still teaching, but we've worked with Xavier University, Ohio State, and now we're working with Cornell. 

We're doing research at Lick Run Greenway. They put in just tons of native plants, everywhere, and they invited us to put beehives there. And it's more about community engagement. We're trying to get the local community to come and watch us work with the beehives. We've invited people to actually put on suits and join us. 

What is the basic lesson that you're trying to impart? 

I walk by green lawns all the time. What's wonderful is my ten-year-olds will go, ‘What are they doing? There is no life in that yard!” I've bought signs recently that say pollinators live here. The lesson is that we need to have a paradigm shift into what is beautiful, and what is right and that the green lawn doesn't support our birds, our songbirds.

It also doesn't support our bees. It doesn't support our butterflies. Those are integral parts of our ecosystem and of what sustains our lives. It's integral to our survival. The more life that you can support in your yard, the better. I call it the mullet method. If you really can't handle having a messy yard, do the business in the front with your green lawn, but party in the back and have all the leaves, all the flowers, all the wildflowers, just let it go crazy. 

What are some introductory habits along the lines of that mullet method? 

You can start by just planting in little pots. So, you know, I think sometimes we feel like, well, I don't have a big yard. I don't have a big sunny spot, I can't do much. 

But even one pot that has a host plant and a nectar plant in it is a big help for the environment. The host plant is anything that a butterfly can lay its eggs on and then the nectar plant is anything that any pollinator can sip nectar from. If you do have a big yard, you can plant any amount of space that you can maintain and that brings you joy. 

A really easy, fun thing to do for pollinators is to put out a pollinator dish. It’s a water dish that is really shallow. I use the trays of flower pots sometimes, and then you put rocks in it, a little bit of mud, and some sand if you've got it.

I think those are the easy starter things. You can also do as big and grand of a garden as you want. You can get native bee houses and add those. You know, it just depends on what people have time for or what they're interested in. 

What kind of support do you need?

We need donations. We have a lot of schools that can't afford to have any speakers come in and we never turn a school down. So sometimes it's out of my pocket or I just, you know, I do it for free. 

But what we really need is for people to learn and then spread this message. Share with your neighbors, share with your friends. Did you know that mosquito yard sprays actually kill our native bees and our butterflies? 

Let's find other ways to take care of the mosquitoes in our neighborhood, right? We want them to spread the message and help educate each other and just find joy in nature. Once you've found joy in any kind of nature, you just sort of naturally start.

That's a life lesson, right? Oh, it's amazing. I get so excited about plants, and I can't help it. 

As people are planting are there things that they should embrace or avoid? 

What we teach is that planting should bring you joy. Native plants absolutely bring me joy, but so do zinnias and they're not native. They do support a lot of insect life and pollinators. 

The things to avoid: invasive plants should not be planted. They are not meant for the space and will choke out our native plants.I think our message is to plant a lot of natives and then plant whatever brings joy and whatever makes your yard something that you enjoy going to and spending time in. 

Tell us about an influential woman in your life. 

Jenny O 'Donnell. She's the co-founder. She's changed my life in the way that I think about myself, the way that I think about the world and the way that I think about friendship. She is a person who has lifted me up in every possible way. I'm grateful for her friendship and for all that she's taught me. 

Editor’s Notes:

Get started on your pollinator garden TODAY! Spring and Autumn are the best planting seasons for many plants.

Learn what to plant:

How to source the right plants:

And why it’s important:

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Education, Features, Outreach + AdvocacySuzanne WilderFeatures