Attracting Beneficial Insects into the Garden

Most pesticides do not discriminate between pests and beneficial insects, wiping out the predator bugs as well as the intended targets.

Killing off the beneficial insects also opens up the garden to a re-infestation of pests as new populations move in from the surrounding areas. Instead, use organic controls such as a blast of water from a garden hose to remove aphids from the underside of leaves or hand pick slugs and caterpillars from plants.

Oils and insecticidal soaps are also effective in targeting soft-bodied insects and aphids. If chemical control is needed, be careful to use pesticides targeted towards specific bugs.

Not every bug is a pest, so take the time to learn the differences between the beneficial insects and the harmful bugs in your garden.

Creepy looking insects such as centipedes and soldier beetles (commonly called the stink bug) have voracious appetites for soft-bodied beetle larva, cut worms and mites.

Identify the bad bugs before hand picking and eliminating any beneficial insects.

Many common landscape plants provide food and shelter during the lifecycle of beneficial insects, including many native flowering perennials and shrubs. Mixing in ornamentals such as sunflowers, coreopsis, coneflowers and milkweeds with edible plantings, and adding extra herbs including dill and parsley provides beneficial insects with places to lay their eggs.

Where space permits, allow a section of the yard to grow naturally to encourage native weeds and grasses to further increase the diversity of beneficial insects.

After the fall frosts, let the leaves, seed pods and stalks of perennials remain uncut through the winter months. Many insects over-winter in the leaf litter including spiders and beneficial beetles.

Clean out the perennial beds after the first warm days of early spring to give the insects a chance to beak their winter dormancy.

Beneficial insects offer biological pest control without pesticides, but they cannot eliminate all of the pests in the garden.

Some level of tolerance to accept minor leaf damage from pests is needed in a balanced environment, and to co-exist with all of the spiders, bugs and other beneficial critters essential to a healthy garden ecosystem.

Predatory insects are the Good Bugs of the garden, seeking out prey to satisfy their voracious appetites. Though some of the good guys are visually unappealing, their presence in your garden means that there are bad bugs are around and on the menu.

The Praying Mantis is a formidable predator, searching the foliage for moths, flies, grasshoppers and other insects. Named for the the way the mantis holds its front legs in a folder position that resembles hands held in prayer, these killer claws are equipped with spikes for capturing and their prey.

The Praying mantis is typically green or brown in color, and they are well camouflaged for life in the leaves. With their large eyes perched on a triangular head that rotates 180 degrees, a mantis will often remain motionless for extended periods of time while it scans its surroundings for its next meal.

image: Sharon Apted (public domain)
http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=12812&picture=grasshopperpraying-mantis

The Ladybug's familiar round, bright red shell spotted with black dots is a welcome sight to gardeners. Favored by children everywhere for their colorful shells and docile demeanor, gardeners appreciate the ladybugs fierceness for eating soft-bodied insect pests.

Ladybugs are specialists, feasting on the plump little aphids that siphon juices out from the leaves of tender plants. A female ladybug lays her eggs on aphid-infested plants and as soon as the eggs hatch, the hungry ladybug larva begin to feed voraciously on aphids. Over the course of its lifetime, a ladybug can consume up to 5,000 aphids.

Also known as the lady beetle, and in Europe as the ladybird beetle, there are over 5,000 species of ladybugs worldwide and over three hundred different species of ladybugs in North America.

Image: Christian Recovery (public domain)

One of the oldest living insects on the planet, dragonflies and their ancestors have been around for over 300 million years. Typically found near water, dragonfly eggs hatch in ponds and streams where the young nymphs feast on mosquito larva before the adult dragonfly emerges to take flight. Airborne, dragonflies target mosquitoes and moths that are caught and devoured while in flight.

Despite their fearsome look, dragonflies and damselflies are harmless to humans.

Image: Public Domain

Predatory and numerous, Lacewings are found worldwide. The brown and green lacewings are the most common species, feeding on soft-bodied insects as larva and also as adults (though the adults green lacewings will also feed on the nectar of plants). Combined with their relatively long lifespans of up to 3 months, lacewings are beneficial predatory insects that help to keep populations of mites, aphids and white fly nymphs in check.

Image: USDA Public Domain

Centipedes are typically found in moist environments, hiding under rocks and boards in the garden. Though they do not actually have a hundred legs, centipedes move quickly through the mulch and leaf litter in search of prey. Centipedes are carnivorous and eat a variety of insects, injecting their invertebrate prey with venom before devouring their victims.

Centipedes are best left alone as their bite can be painful to humans. The venom is not harmful to people, but can cause allergic reactions similar to bee and wasp stings.

Image: Public Domain

There is nothing more beautiful than a large web, glistening with dew in the early morning sunshine. But for the unwary insect, the sticky web of a garden spider brings certain death.

Garden spiders are not insects, but belong to the Arachnid family. Insects have six legs and a three-part body, whereas spiders have eight legs and a two-part body. Large garden spiders look intimidating and though they have fangs and can bite if provoked, their bite is harmless to humans.

There are many different types of garden spiders. Some species of garden spider spin marvelous circular webs up to two feet across while other hunt along the ground in search of unsuspecting bugs. Spiders eat all kinds of insects including moths, flies, beetles and grasshoppers -- just about any insect that gets tangled in its silky web.

Image: Public Domain

Parasitic wasps are a very specialized predator: rather than capturing prey for their young to eat, a parasitic wasp inserts its eggs into the body of an unsuspecting insect such as the hornworm caterpillar -- the fat grren caterpillar commonly found munching on the leaves of tomato plants.

As the young wasp larva hatch, they begin to feed on their host. Eventually, they emerge to spin a silky cocoon that is anchored on the back of the doomed caterpillar.

Parasitic wasps are tiny, harmless to humans and often go unseen in the garden, but make their presence known by the number of caterpillars carrying around little white cocoons on their back. If you find a tomato worm covered in little bits of white, remove the caterpillar by hand and relocate to another part of the yard. The wasps will finish the job, and the next generation of wasps will seek out their next victims.

Image: USDA (Public Domain)

Toads, bats and birds all feed on different insects and pests, and are easily encouraged to visit gardens of nearly every size. Bats eat hundreds of moths and mosquitoes every night, toads eat slugs and cut worms, and different types of birds feed on numerous caterpillars, bugs and beetles.

Provide a water source such as a small pond to entice predatory damselflies and frogs. In some areas, owls and even snakes help to control the populations of destructive moles and voles.

Toads are welcome visitors to the garden, and a toad house invites them to stay. Offering protection for the weather and from predators, a toad house is easy to make from an inverted terracotta flower plot. Topped with a moosy roof, a toad house is a simple yet artful additional to the shade garden.

Gently chip out a small opening in the rim of a an 8" terracota flower pot using a hammer or pliers. The terracotta is both tough and brittle, and is difficult to break cleanly. Try to break out a semi-circular opening about 2 inches across, though the size and shape is not critical. Cement the back of the saucer to the top of the inverted pot using an exterior adhesive, or simply place on top ofthe inverted flowerpot.

Fill the saucer with potting mix, and press pieces of moss into the soil. Keep the moss moist until it takes root in the soil. Over time, the moss will crept over the edges of the saucer. The decorative toad house is ready for new tenants.

Place the finished toad house in a shady area of the garden, near groups of perennials or near the base of a small shrub. Bury the rim into the soil to stabilize the pot.

For over 35 years, the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) has encouraged homeowners, schools, corporations and municipalities to incorporate the needs of the local wildlife into their landscape design. So far, the NWF has recognized the efforts of nearly 140,000 individuals and organizations who plant native shrubs and plants for food, cover and places for raising their young, provide include a source of drinking water, and add nesting boxes for cavity nesting birds.

Please visit the NWF website for additonal information on their offical Certified Wildlife Habitat program

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