Sunday, May 17, 2009

Attracting Beneficial Insects

I recently planted Zinnias in my garden to attract some beneficial insects to our garden plot at the Pleasantville farm.  And, as promised, I’ve put together a table listing the pests and the flowers that attract insects to combat them.

If you see any of the five insects below, let them live.

These are the good guys!

Beneficial Banner

Let the Garden Wars begin!

 Beneficial Table

 

Now, there are plenty of other pests that flowers just aren’t going to attract the right insects to kill them off. 

In a lot of cases, there are these nifty, microscopic worms that can take care of them.  They are called Beneficial Nematodes.  They occur naturally and are not harmful to humans, pets or plants, but sometimes you need an infusion of them so you can place an order with www.planetnatural.com (it is sold by the pint so I’m thinking it’s a liquid spray).

Beneficial Nematodes are known for going to war against:

Ants, Beetles, Japanese Beetles, Black Fly Larvae, Billbugs, Cabbage Worms, Cinch Bugs, Cranberry Girdler, Fleas, Flies, Fungus Gnats, Gail Gnats, Grubs, Loopers, Mole Cricket, Mormon Cricket, Saw Flies, Sod Webworms, Soil Swelling Pests, Squash Bugs, Boll Weevil, Root Weevil, Vine Weevil, White Grubs, and hundreds of others.

I can’t guarantee planting flowers or spraying nematodes all over your yard will get rid of all the pests, but at least you’re trying!

Good luck!

7 comments:

Lillian Robinson said...

Thanks for the post. I love trying to control pests and weeds with a more natural approach. I appreciate the time you put into this blog.

myra said...

I know about the lady bug but the others thanks my garden needs all the help it can get.

SquirrelQueen said...

That chart is great, like MzzLily I like to use natural methods whenever possible.
I have heard of the nematodes but have never tried them, might have to give the a go.

Thanks for all the tips,
SQ

Pollyanna said...

I'm not a tree-hugger, but natural pest control really does help. The problems with chemicals is that they wipe out EVERYTHING - good & bad. Unfortunately, the bad bugs reproduce faster and in larger quantities. So it becomes a vicious cycle & you end up using more and more chemicals.

BTW - the garden is coming along nicely. The lettuce & radish seed we planted are already coming up! And we've added popcorn plants - too cool!

Mark Kreider said...

we've got crimson clover coming up to keep weed out of the tomatoes. Ath the end of the season they help the soil when rototilled in. Marigolds help too.

Pollyanna said...

Interesting. I'll have to look into those - we really want to have a garden that flourishes!

SquirrelQueen said...

You have an award waiting for you at my photo blog, http://thrusquirreleyes.blogspot.com/
Come over and pick it up.
SQ