Make friends with the "Good Bugs" in your garden!

The “good bugs” of the garden, are called Beneficial Insects. Beneficial Insects are those that feed on garden pests like aphids (suck the sap out of plants, weakening the plant and causing the spread of viruses) and slugs (damage leaved crops and vulnerable seedlings). Beneficial Insects are also those that help with the pollination of garden crops.

Some of the Good Bugs That Should be Welcome In Your Garden:

• Parasitoid wasps – feed on Aphids, Caterpillars and Grubs
• Lacewing larvae – feed on Aphids
• Ladybug larvae – feed on Aphids
• Ground beetles – feed on ground-dwelling pests
• Hover flies, and Robber flies – feed on many insects, including Leafhoppers and Caterpillars
• Nematodes – kill many garden insects including, including Grubs and Japanese Beetles.
• Bumble and Honey Bee – helps with pollination
• Dragon Fly -eat Mosquitoes, Aphids and other pest bugs
• Spiders – the most important predators on insects, killing more than all other predators combined

To attract Good Bugs to your garden, you will need to supply them with reliable food sources and shelter.
Insects have different feeding requirements during the various stages of their development, so a diversity of plants is essential to attracting them. Although beneficial insects do feast on pest insects, there may be certain points in their life cycles when many beneficial insects need to sip flower nectar or pollen to survive. To attract these insects to your garden, you will need to provide host plants and plants for shelter.
When you are planning your garden, choose a variety of plants that will bloom throughout the year to attract the Good Bugs!

Here are some things you can do to support your Good Bug population:

• Plant nectar-producing flowers to increase the food supply. Plants in the cabbage, carrot and sunflower family are especially attractive to the Good Bugs
  

  Provide Native flowers for these great Pollinators to feed on.

• Plant tiny flowers for tiny wasps, like Coriander, Queen Anne’s Lace, fennel, angelica, dill, clovers, yarrow, and rue
• Plant composite flowers (black eyed susan, daisy and chamomile) and mints (spearmint, peppermint, or catnip) to attract predatory wasps, hover flies, and robber flies
• Plant low growing plants as cover for ground beetles (thyme, rosemary, or mint)
  
  

  Larvae and adults feed on soft-bodied insects such as aphids, mealybugs, scale insects and spider mites as well as insect eggs.

• Control ants which may hinder the Good Bug’s ability to control aphids
• Do NOT use broad-spectrum, contact insecticides. These will only provide temporary control and will kill more natural predators( Good Bugs) than pests (Bad Bugs). In the long run, this will actually benefit the growth of the pest (Bad Bugs) populations.
• Cover bare dirt in your garden with dead leaves or grass clippings mulch thick enough to shade the soil surface. This will provide shelter for spiders, which are the number one predator on insects.
  
  

  Spiders feed on a broad variety of pest insects year-round.

• Bring in the Birds! – Birds are also very helpful with controlling Bad Bugs. Any trees, shrubs or plants with berries will attract birds. And, no garden is complete without a birdhouse!

What about the Slugs?

Slugs are one of the most damaging pests known to the garden. A family of slugs can devastate a vegetable crop in a matter of days. Slugs will eat any kind of vegetation but prefer tender leaves. Slugs will also eat vegetables and fruits, and cause very unsightly damage to the crops.
Attracting slug predators to your garden can help to control or avoid a slug population. Toads, snakes, ducks, chickens and raccoons are some of the most common predators of slugs.

As you continue to learn to work with the Good Bugs and the inner working of your garden you will see the benefits and all of the “give and take” at work at your feet.