Gardening to Attract Beneficial Insects

Beneficial insects are the "good" insects that perform valuable tasks in the garden like pollinating, acting as natural predators, or preying on destructive insects. Organic gardeners attract these beneficials to their gardens so they are able to avoid the use of insecticides. Even some of the organic or natural insecticides pose a threat to honey bees and other good insects. It isn't hard to attract these beneficials to your garden.

The best way to attract these beneficial insects is to plant a flower bed or border of plants that are rich in pollen and nectar. Insects need water, so having a birdbath or a shallow bowl is also good idea. Pollen-rich plants attract honey bees and help to stabilize a healthy bee population, which in turn, encourages good pollination. Other plants help to attract the predator insects that control the damaging insects.

Some of these beneficial insects include: Aphid Midge, Bees, Yellow Jackets, Braconoid Wasp, Damsel Bug, Ground Beetles, Lacewings, Lady Bugs, Minute Pirate Bugs, Soldier Beetles, Spined Soldier Bug, Tachinid Flies & Spiders. Get familiar with these little critters!

The honey bee is vital in it's role as the sole pollinator for many of our fruits and vegetables.

The Damsel Bug will eat just about any other insect and is particularly beneficial when it comes to leaf eating bugs.

The Lady Bug An adult Lady Bug will consume more than 5,000 aphids in it's lifetime!

Lacewing larvae will feast on aphids, citrus mealybugs, cottony cushion scale, spider mites, thrips, caterpillars & insect eggs.

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Click here to view a PDF of plants for attracting beneficial insects

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