Beneficial Insects: Your Garden's Most Powerful Allies
Our insect allies far outnumber the insect pests in our yards and gardens. Bees, flies, and many moths help gardeners by pollinating flowers; predatory insects eat pest insects; parasitic insects lay their eggs inside pests, and the larvae that hatch then weaken or kill the pests; dung beetles, flies, and others break down decaying material, which helps build good soil.
Encouraging Beneficials: The best way to protect beneficial insects is to avoid using toxic sprays or dusts in the garden. Even organically acceptable sprays such as insecticidal soap and neem can kill beneficial species, so use them only when absolutely necessary to preserve a crop and then only on the plants being attacked. Be careful when you hand pick or spray pest insects, or you may end up killing beneficial insects by mistake. While many beneficials are too small to be seen with the unaided eye, it’s easy to learn to identify the larger common beneficials such as lacewings, tachinid flies, and lady beetles.
You can make your yard and garden a haven for beneficials by taking simple steps to provide them with food, water, and shelter.
Food sources: A flower bed or border of companion plants rich in pollen and nectar, such as catnip, dill, and yarrow, is a food source for the adult stages of many beneficials, including native bees, lacewings, and parasitic wasps.
Water: Many types of beneficial insects are too small to be able to drink water safely from a stream, water garden, or even a regular birdbath. To provide a safe water supply for these delicate insects, fill a shallow birdbath or large bowl with stones. Then add just enough water to create shallow stretches of water with plenty of exposed landing sites where the insects can alight and drink without drowning. You’ll need to check this bug bath daily, as the water may evaporate quickly on sunny days.
Shelter: Leave some weeds here and there among your vegetable plants to provide alternate food sources and shelter for beneficial species. Plant a hedge or build a windbreak fence to reduce dust, because beneficial insects dehydrate easily in dusty conditions. And set up some permanent 83pathways and mulched areas around your yard and garden. These protected areas offer safe places for beneficials to hide during the daytime (for species that are active at night), during bad weather, or when you’re actively cultivating the soil.
Attracting beneficial insects. Making your garden a haven for beneficial insects is easy and fun. It’s also one of the cheapest and most environmentally sound ways to help prevent insect pests from getting the upper hand on your food crops and ornamentals. A list of beneficial insects would include: Bees, parasitic wasps, yellow jackets, lady beetles, ground beetles, rove beetles, and other beetles, such as hister beetles, tiger beetles and fireflies (yep - it's a beetle!). Other beneficials include flies such as, tachinid, syrphid, aphid midges, dragonflies and lacewings. True bugs - a scientific group - that is made up of assassin, ambush, damsel, soldier, and minute pirate bugs. There are also spiders and mites such as predatory mites that live in trees, shrubs and surface litter; phytoseiid mites that control many kinds of plant-feeding mites, and soil dwelling mites that eat nematodes, insect eggs, fungus gnat larvae, or decaying organic matter.
To learn more about encouraging beneficial insects in your yard, visit the Web sites of organizations such as the Xerces Society. (From: Organic Gardening Magazine)
Our insect allies far outnumber the insect pests in our yards and gardens. Bees, flies, and many moths help gardeners by pollinating flowers; predatory insects eat pest insects; parasitic insects lay their eggs inside pests, and the larvae that hatch then weaken or kill the pests; dung beetles, flies, and others break down decaying material, which helps build good soil.
Encouraging Beneficials: The best way to protect beneficial insects is to avoid using toxic sprays or dusts in the garden. Even organically acceptable sprays such as insecticidal soap and neem can kill beneficial species, so use them only when absolutely necessary to preserve a crop and then only on the plants being attacked. Be careful when you hand pick or spray pest insects, or you may end up killing beneficial insects by mistake. While many beneficials are too small to be seen with the unaided eye, it’s easy to learn to identify the larger common beneficials such as lacewings, tachinid flies, and lady beetles.
You can make your yard and garden a haven for beneficials by taking simple steps to provide them with food, water, and shelter.
Food sources: A flower bed or border of companion plants rich in pollen and nectar, such as catnip, dill, and yarrow, is a food source for the adult stages of many beneficials, including native bees, lacewings, and parasitic wasps.
Water: Many types of beneficial insects are too small to be able to drink water safely from a stream, water garden, or even a regular birdbath. To provide a safe water supply for these delicate insects, fill a shallow birdbath or large bowl with stones. Then add just enough water to create shallow stretches of water with plenty of exposed landing sites where the insects can alight and drink without drowning. You’ll need to check this bug bath daily, as the water may evaporate quickly on sunny days.
Shelter: Leave some weeds here and there among your vegetable plants to provide alternate food sources and shelter for beneficial species. Plant a hedge or build a windbreak fence to reduce dust, because beneficial insects dehydrate easily in dusty conditions. And set up some permanent 83pathways and mulched areas around your yard and garden. These protected areas offer safe places for beneficials to hide during the daytime (for species that are active at night), during bad weather, or when you’re actively cultivating the soil.
Attracting beneficial insects. Making your garden a haven for beneficial insects is easy and fun. It’s also one of the cheapest and most environmentally sound ways to help prevent insect pests from getting the upper hand on your food crops and ornamentals. A list of beneficial insects would include: Bees, parasitic wasps, yellow jackets, lady beetles, ground beetles, rove beetles, and other beetles, such as hister beetles, tiger beetles and fireflies (yep - it's a beetle!). Other beneficials include flies such as, tachinid, syrphid, aphid midges, dragonflies and lacewings. True bugs - a scientific group - that is made up of assassin, ambush, damsel, soldier, and minute pirate bugs. There are also spiders and mites such as predatory mites that live in trees, shrubs and surface litter; phytoseiid mites that control many kinds of plant-feeding mites, and soil dwelling mites that eat nematodes, insect eggs, fungus gnat larvae, or decaying organic matter.
To learn more about encouraging beneficial insects in your yard, visit the Web sites of organizations such as the Xerces Society. (From: Organic Gardening Magazine)
Basil Grow it: This sweet, fragrant annual is ideal for growing in pots. Pull off the white flowers as soon as they appear to keep it from going to seed and your herbs from tasting bitter.
Use it: Rub crushed leaves on your temples to relieve headaches. Pour boiling water over basil leaves for a pain-relieving footbath. (From: Organic Gardening Magazine)
Use it: Rub crushed leaves on your temples to relieve headaches. Pour boiling water over basil leaves for a pain-relieving footbath. (From: Organic Gardening Magazine)