NATURAL PEST CONTROL
By
Attracting Beneficial Insects to Your Garden
Pest is always the problem for every gardener and the solution is always chemical pesticides. But you will have to watch and keep your kid & pets from the toxic substances. So controling natural pest by using beneficial insects will be the good choice.
A garden insectary is a small garden plot of flowering plants designed to attract and harbor beneficial insects. These "good insects" prey on many common garden insect pests and offer the gardener a safer, natural alternative to pesticides.
The garden insectary is a form of "companion planting," based on the positive attributes plants can share in deterring pests, acquiring nutrients, or attracting natural predators. By becoming more diverse with your plantings, you're providing habitat, shelter, and alternative food sources (such as pollen and nectar), something many predators need as part of their diet.
Here's an example. You can control aphids with an aphid predator like aphidius, and you can encourage aphidius to set up shop by planting sunflowers or lupin. Of course, the aphid predators need the pests to be present in order to eat, thrive, and reproduce—that is, they need aphids to be found in and around the general area you're trying to protect from the aphids.
Natural Pest Control by Species
Use Table A to figure out which beneficial insects you want to attract, based on your particular pest problems. Then use Table B to see what you should plant to attract the beneficial insects (predator insects)
Table A
Natural Pest Control by Insect Species
Pest Insect |
Predator Insect |
|---|---|
| Aphids | Aphidius |
| Aphids | Aphidoletes |
| Thrips, spidermites, fungus gnats | Beneficial mites |
| Eggs of many pest insects | Damsel bugs (Nabidae) |
| Whiteflies, aphids, thrip, spider mites | Dicyphus |
| Slugs, small caterpillars and grubs | Ground beetles |
| Grubs | Spring Tiphia wasp |
| Aphids, mealybugs and others | Hoverflies |
| Scale, aphids, mites, soft-bodied insects | Lacewings |
| Aphids, mites | Ladybugs |
| Thrips, aphids, mites, scales, whiteflies | Pirate bugs |
| Caterpillars; beetle and fly larvae | Tachinid flies |
| Whiteflies; moth, beetle and fly larvae | Parasitic wasps |
Table B.
What to Plant to Attract Beneficial Insects (Predator Insects)
| Predator Insect | What to Plant (Insectary Plant) |
|---|---|
| Lacewings, aphidius, ladybugs | Achillea filipendulina |
| Hoverflies | Alyssum |
| Ground beetles | Amaranthus |
| Spring Tiphia wasp | Peonies, firethorn, forsythia |
| Ichneumon wasp, ladybugs, lacewings | Anethum graveolens (dill) |
| Lacewings | Angelica gigas |
| Ladybugs, hoverflies | Convolvulus minor |
| Hoverflies, parasitic wasps, lacewings | Cosmos bipinnatus |
| Dicyphus | Digitalis |
| Lacewings, ladybugs, hoverflies | Daucus carota (Queen Anne's lace) |
| Damsel bugs, ladybugs, lacewings | Foeniculum vulgare (fennel) |
| Pirate bugs, beneficial mites | Helianthus annulus |
| Hoverflies | Iberis umbellata |
| Hoverflies, parasitic wasps | Limonium latifolium (Statice) |
| Aphidius, aphidoletes, hoverflies | Lupin |
| Parasitic wasps, tachinid flies | Melissa officinalis (lemon balm) |
| Parasitic wasps, hoverflies, tachinid flies | Petroselinum crispum (parsley) |
| Pirate bugs, beneficial mites | Shasta daisy |
| Pirate bugs, aphidius | Sunflowers |
| Ladybugs, lacewings | Tanacetum vulgare (tansy) |
| Dicyphus | Verbascum thaspus |
Tips and Suggestions
1. Include plants of different heights in your insectary. Ground beetles require the cover provided by low-growing plants such as thyme, rosemary, or mint. Lacewings lay their eggs in shady, protected areas, so providing such places near crop plants is a good idea.
2. Tiny flowers produced in large quantity are much more valuable than a single, large bloom. Large, nectar-filled blooms actually can drown tiny parasitoid wasps.
3. Members of the Umbelliferae family are excellent insectary plants. Fennel, angelica, coriander, dill, and wild carrot all produce the tiny flowers required by parasitoid wasps.
4. Composite flowers (daisy and chamomile) and mints (spearmint, peppermint, or catnip) will attract predatory wasps, hover flies, and robber flies.