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Natural Selection: Using Good Insects to Fight Bad Pests

When it comes to gardening and horticulture, there is no shortage of pesticides, sprays and chemicals to control plant-killing critters. While many sprays and substances are effective in fending off bugs, termites and pestilence, how do you address the bugs that have developed resistance to already-strong chemicals?

It turns out there are many ways to protect your garden, with the help of Mother Nature.

Garden Insect Allies — Can You Dig It?

Not all bugs are bad, necessarily. In fact, some insects are beneficial for gardeners and horticulturists. The “honor roll” for beneficial bug buddies is a surprisingly lengthy one, and it includes ground and rove beetles, Tachinid flies, garden spiders, ladybugs, dragonflies, Lacewings, honeybees, praying mantis’ and the impressively-named assassin bug.

So how do you attract these highly-desired insect tenants to your garden? Plant a lot of nectar or pollen-bearing plants, like marigolds or parsley. These provide food for certain benign bugs, such as bees, Lacewings, and Tachinid flies, while ground-covering plants like petunias and zinnias offer shelter and cover for other kinds of bad-bug predators, like spiders, mantis’, and beetles.

There are many ways to attract beneficial insects and further beautify your garden and grounds at the same time, writes master organic gardener Emily Saddler. She suggests planting a variety of herbs, plants, and flowers that can also be used by humans as spices and ingredients. Those include basil, dill, fennel, Echinacea, garlic, onions, parsley, asters, marigolds and basil. Some of these plants also have scents and odors that confuse certain pests, which make the plants even more valuable in your garden. Those providing ground cover, shelter, and even food (nectar) for these good insects include chamomile, nasturtiums, zinnias, petunias, cosmos, calendula, and tansy. Also, having a pond nearby encourages and attracts dragonflies, which are colorful, fun to watch and deadly to aphids and other pests.

Bad Bugs and Their Enemies

There are many insects that can eat up your vegetables or destroy them before the plants even have a chance to grow. Organic Gardening magazine put together a list of the worst garden pests and how to neutralize them:

There you have it, the top 12 most heinous gardens pests, along with their natural enemies. Another option for primarily ground bugs like worms and grubs, are nematodes. 3 These are microscopic worms live in the soil and kill grubs.

One final recommendation is to choose straw mulch as a base to attract garden spiders. These are “good bugs” to have around if you want to keep the not-so-nice insects from having a heyday. No pun intended.

Now, it’s time to go make some new insect friends and put them to use; to have a thriving garden just in time for autumn harvest.

  garden-photo  

 

If you have any comments, I’d really like to hear from you.

OZ Gardener
The Garden Of Oz

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