Beneficial Insects
A growing number of horticulturalists, organic farmers, and native plant care specialists are using beneficial insects to combat pests without the use of harmful chemical pesticides. This practice is known as Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and is increasingly used by home gardeners as well.
Attract beneficial insects to your garden
The first step in attracting beneficial insect populations to your yard is to provide them with the necessary resources to live and thrive. This includes water, food, and shelter.
Creating a welcoming habitat for beneficial insects will attract these little helpers and encourage them to stay around longer, especially in dry weather. Create a diversity of plants that offer plenty of food sources, such as nectar-rich flowers and fruit, shrubs, colourful perennials, raspberries, roses, tall grasses, and fragrant herbs.
For example, alyssum plants are irresistible to hoverflies because they’re brimming with honey-scented nectar that these insects love. Alyssum is also a good food source for aphids, which hoverflies often like to snack on.
Lady beetles are a familiar species that can help control aphids and other pests. Adult lady beetles look like small, oval bugs and can be red or orange with a yellow or black spot on the abdomen. They have a voracious appetite and consume about 100-200 aphids per week.
These nocturnal predatory beetles hunt at night and seek cover beneath stones, leaf litter or log piles to hide from sunlight during the day. Their diets include caterpillars, thrips, whiteflies, slugs, aphids, mites, and other ground-dwelling pests.
Green lacewing larvae, which are sold in containers that allow you to shake them into your plants or among affected areas, are another effective way to combat unwanted pests. The larvae are green-bodied, have intricately veined wings that are see-through, and can easily feed on aphids, caterpillars, thrips, and other unwanted insects.
The larvae can be purchased at local nurseries, or you can find them in a variety of commercially available pest control sprays. You can also raise them in your own backyard if you have the space, as these little helpers are highly active parasites that will feed on many pests, including aphids, cutworms, and other soil-dwelling insects.
They’re a great choice for many different flower gardens, but they are particularly helpful in vegetable gardens where aphids are a problem. They also like coriander, cosmos, dandelion, dill, fennel, yarrow, and other herbaceous plants that are often targeted by aphids.
Aside from consuming aphids, they’re also a good source of pollen, helping the growth of your seeds. They can be found in the soil, on leaf tips, and in flower heads.
Other beneficial insects that can be useful in your garden are lacewings, wasps, and hornets. These insects are primarily predators of aphids, but they also can eat caterpillars and other harmful plant pests.
It is important to be aware of how these helpful creatures live and behave so you can effectively attract and keep them around your yard and garden. They’re naturally a part of the ecosystem and have an essential role in controlling pests, so it is crucial to do your best to ensure that they remain in their natural habitat by providing them with all the resources they need to survive.