How to Attract Beneficial Bugs

Is your garden under attack from garden pests? Insects can eat your plants and spread diseases, but there are natural methods to help fight them. Some insects have natural predators that can keep pest populations in check without much extra work for you. Encouraging these beneficial bugs to help you in your garden is the key to natural pest control. Here are three steps to attract beneficial bugs to your garden.

First: Determine which bugs to attract

To figure out how to attract beneficial bugs, you need to know which bugs you want to have. This will usually be based on which pests are currently causing problems in your garden. For example, if you are dealing with an infestation of aphids, you would want to attract ladybeetles. If you have tomato hornworms destroying your plants, perhaps a variety of parasitic wasp could help. Different pest problems will have different beneficial bug solutions.

Take some time to document and understand what kind of damage you are experiencing in your garden. Making a positive identification of problem pests, and ensuring any damage is not the result of weather conditions, bacteria, fungus, or viruses can help you narrow your list of potential insect solutions. Do your research on what to expect once you successfully attract or release your beneficial bugs. Will they resolve the problem quickly, or is this a “wait for the next generation” kind of solution. Both can be effective, but you will feel more confident of the outcome if you know what to expect up front.

Second: Avoid harmful pesticides

Attracting beneficial bugs can be part of a larger pest management plan that includes physical barriers, chemical deterents, and pesticides. But you must make sure that you avoid spraying anything that will destroy or repel the beneficial bugs once you’ve attracted them. If your pest infestation is so severe that you must use a broad spectrum pesticide, try to find one that doesn’t stay in the plant or soil. That way, even if some beneficial bugs are killed by an initial chemical application, you can start your attraction process after the chemicals have worn off.

Taking a graduated approach where you start with physical barriers or hand picking of the pests, then move to deterrents before considering toxic chemicals is a great way to find the least harmful pest management plan. Finding a pesticide or pest deterrent that affects the pests but not other beneficial insects is the best option, but it may not be feasible for a severe infestation on a priority crop.

Third: Plant food and habitat

Attracting beneficial bugs is the first step, but ideally you want them to stay and create a sustainable population of garden predators. To do this you must provide the kinds of food and habitat that they need to thrive. Food wil hopefully be taken care of by the pests you are trying to get rid of. But what happens when that initial batch of pests is removed? If you want to have continued garden protection you need to find a way to keep the beneficial bugs around.

Research other food supplies and consider if you should plant sacrifice crops that are a particular pests’ favorite. But, make sure you don’t attract so many pests that you overwhelm your beneficial insect friends. It is an important balancing act and may take more than one growing season to figure out.

If you’ve figured out which bugs to attract, made sure not to accidentally kill them with chemicals, and set up a habitat with your desired bugs’ favorite food, you’re ready to go for it. Roll out the welcome mat for your favorite beneficial bug like ladybeetles, praying mantis, parasitic wasps, ground beetles, and adult flower flies. Whether they will directly attack your problem pest or destroy them as part of their life cycle by eating pest eggs before they hatch, they can help you keep ahead of any pests that might gather in your garden this growing season.

Looking for more info on common garden pests? Check out this blog post on How to Solve Garden Insect Problems.