Protect Your Garden with Beneficial Bugs
(Page 4 of 6)
August/September 2004
By Barbara Pleasant
Cover crops, including grains and grasses, which host ground beetles; buckwheat, a favorite of many beneficial bugs; and nectar-rich wildflowers and sweet clover can help target particular pest problems — a standard practice in sustainable fruit-growing operations. Bugg has compiled a cover-crop database that includes information on helpful and harmful insects attracted to different cover-crop plants in a wide range of climates (see www.sarep.ucdavis.edu/cgi-bin/ccrop.exe).
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Every good farmscape is a custom job, and each is home to its own variety of plants that offer continuity of bloom. If you have a diverse habitat and continuous bloom throughout the year, you have rolled out the welcome mat for beneficial insects. Your plants will ring their dinner bells as pest insects appear, so prepare to be amazed by the appetites of your garden’s smallest friends.
Store-bought Beneficials
You can buy some kinds of beneficial insects to release in your garden, but to be effective, beneficials must be released under precise conditions, and some of those that stick around best (praying mantids, for example) are generalized feeders that kill both helpful and harmful insects. The situation is different in greenhouses, where beneficials are not likely to be present unless you introduce them. In the open garden, growing plants that will attract beneficial insects probably is the most effective, efficient approach. — Mother
Your Garden’s ‘Most Wanted’ Beneficial Insects
The three “P’s” of beneficial insects are pollinators, predators and parasites. Pollinators, such as honeybees, fertilize flowers, which increases the productivity of food crops ranging from apples to zucchini. Predators, such as lady beetles and soldier bugs, consume pest insects as food. Parasites use pests as nurseries for their young. On any given day, all three “P’s” are feeding on pests or on flower pollen and nectar in a diversified garden. If you recognize these good bugs, it’s easier to appreciate their work and understand why it’s best not to use broad-spectrum herbicides. Here are 10 worth knowing:
Lacewings (Neuroptera) may be brown or green, and adults are usually one-half to three-fourths-inch long, with delicate, transparent wings. Eggs are often seen stuck to leaves on short threads. The larvae, known as aphid lions and aphid wolves, feed on aphids, mealybugs, scale, thrips, mites, and other larvae and eggs. The predacious period lasts 15 to 20 days, during which a larva will eat 100 or more insects a day. Adults need pollen, nectar and honeydew (secreted by aphids and other sucking insects), as well as water.
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