Protect Your Garden with Beneficial Bugs
Plant the right flowers to attract beneficial insects to your garden.
August/September 2004
By Barbara Pleasant
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An adult syrphid fly feeds on pollen and nectar (syrphid larvae prey on aphids, too.)
REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
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Potatoes were planted for the first time last summer at Clemson University’s Calhoun Field Laboratory Research Farm in South Carolina. Soon after the plants emerged, potato beetles showed up and began eating the plants. Then came a rowdy band of soldier bugs, sometimes called predatory stink bugs. “It was neat and exciting to see them,” says Dr. Geoff Zehnder, a professor of entomology at Clemson. “The stink bugs really did a job on the potato beetles. We still had to spray once with Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis), but the rest of the time, the stink bugs kept the potato beetle population down.”
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Zehnder, who also is coordinator of Clemson’s IPM (integrated pest management) and sustainable agriculture programs, says he doesn’t know exactly where the helpful stink bugs came from but he thinks they were in residence as a consequence of plant diversity on the farm, which is home to plenty of flowering plants intended to attract beneficial insects. “It’s not a silver bullet solution to pest problems, but it does have an effect,” Zehnder says. “If you are going to farm or garden organically, you need to build in attractants for beneficials.”
Ten years ago, Dr. Whitney Cranshaw of Colorado State University headed a team that surveyed more than 150 plant species to document those most effective at attracting beneficials. The study was conducted at the Denver Botanic Garden and the Cheyenne Botanic Garden; the target beneficials were five leading “good bug” categories — hover flies, braconid wasps, tachinid flies, lacewings and lady beetles (See “Your Garden’s ‘Most Wanted’ Beneficial Insects,” below). “The beneficials liked plants with tiny flowers, which had easily accessible nectar chambers,” Cranshaw says, noting the favorites were members of the mint, carrot and aster families, and sedums and alyssums. (The flowers they surveyed and the beneficials attracted are listed below.) Including some of these ornamentals in your garden should help attract and sustain good bugs to help keep pests in check. (Crenshaw has just published a superb new book, Garden Insects of North America: The Ultimate Guide to Backyard Bugs.)
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