05 Apr Targeting Pest Management Naturally: Beneficial Insects
I never thought you’d hear these words from my mouth, but guess what? Not all bugs or insects are bad. Looking back, I would always look at insects, grouping them and regard them all as pests, but this is, in fact, untrue. Only a small number of insects are true pests, while some of the remaining insects at large assist humans and their gardening endeavours.
But what is a beneficial insect, and what is a pest? How do beneficial insects help humans, and what is the difference between the two?
Beneficial Insects vs Harmful Pests
What is a Beneficial Insect And How Does It Assist In Pest Infestations?
A beneficial insect helps to reduce pest damage, pest populations, or even pest infestations. They assist in the garden by pollinating flowers, consuming problem pests, or even aerating soil, leaving the area better off after their presence, and providing a naturally integrated pest management system.
Beneficial insects can either be pollinators, pollinating your flowers themselves or encouraging pollination, or alternatively, they are predators, consuming pests and keeping harmful or irritating pest populations down. A good suggestion would be to attract some of both pollinating and predatory beneficial insects, to ensure that you have both bases covered.
What is a Harmful Pest?
A pest is a living creature seen as undesirable or harmful to humans or human concerns. This can include causing damage and destruction to homes, building structures, crops, gardens, and livestock. Lastly, they can have severe consequences by carrying diseases that could be dangerous to humans.
Many pests can also carry diseases that affect humans, including:
Rats & Mice – Salmonella, Leptospirosis, plague, and typhus
Flies – Cholera, Dysentery
Ticks – Tick bit fever and Lyme’s disease
Cockroaches – Dysentery
How Do Beneficial Insects Assist in the Garden?
Many insects are not just bugs that eat your plants, a nuisance to humans, or cause chaos wherever they go. Some play important positive roles within your garden, forming a natural pest management service by consuming other pests, while others pollinate your plants and even aerate the soil.
Five Important Beneficial Insects
There are many important insects in the garden, including soldier beetles, parasitic wasps, and the praying mantis, and they all play a role in keeping a garden’s pest management system working. We have chosen five of the more common and well-known ones to touch on.
Ladybugs
Ladybugs play a very positive role in your natural integrated pest management system, by eating aphids and mites that prey on your garden’s plants.
Green Lacewing
Green lacewings are greenish-brown insects with mostly transparent wings, and they are a great addition to any garden. Not only do they not bite or sting, but they prove to be extremely useful in keeping pests such as white lacewings, aphids, insect eggs, and caterpillars in check.
Spiders
Technically, the spider isn’t an insect, but rather an arachnoid, but their role is of great importance, so we’ll include them here as an honorary insect! Let’s be honest here, not many people like these beneficial assistants. It might be their hairy legs, excessive eyes, or…well…just about everything about them. The bottom line is that they help in keeping irritating pest populations down. They eat anything from cockroaches, mites, gnats, flies, mosquitos, and worms!
Black Ground Beetle
Ground beetles not only eat weed seeds but also consume pest insects such as caterpillars, fly maggots, silverfish, weevils, slugs, and other beetle larvae.
Bees
Bees are probably the most beneficial insects there are, as they assist in pollinating flowers and plants in the garden. Not only that, but they also provide honey, and what is tastier than that?
How Do I Attract Beneficial Insects To My Garden?
There are a couple of ways to encourage beneficial insects to take up residence in your garden, including amongst others:
- Ensure that there is plenty of water available in the garden for all your insects. A water feature or even a bird bath or rock decoration with slight indentations for water storage will work well. Not only will the bird bath work well for water storage but will also attract birds that eat insects.
- Keep a variety of different types of plants and flowers that bloom in different seasons at different times of the year. This will assist the insects in forming a habitat in which they can grow, thrive, and survive.
- Keep a section of your garden dedicated to wildflowers and let it grow wild. That will encourage the presence of numerous insects, such as ladybugs, butterflies, moths, and bees, and provide natural vegetation that is attractive to beneficial insects.
- Many of these beneficial insects are drawn to fragrances. Try to incorporate fragrant plants and flowers into your garden.
- Remember to ensure variety in terms of your garden. Whether it is a vegetable garden, pure flowers, or a combination of both, variety ensures that you have a “little of everything” to attract those beneficial insects you are looking at targeting.
- Avoid using pesticides in the garden as this will dissuade them from staying in your habitat.
What Type of Plants Will Attract Beneficial Insects To My Garden?
Yes, some types of plants will be more successful than others in attracting beneficial insects. Try including some of these plants, herbs, and flowers in your garden, to assist in attracting beneficial insects and assisting with your pest management control:
Herbs to include in your beneficial-friendly garden include fennel, basil, coriander, mint, and parsley.
Other plants and flowers that are suggested to be included within your garden to attract beneficial insects are sunflowers, marigolds, lavender, buckwheat, wild mustard, yellow rocket, milkweed, and dandelion, to mention but a few of a wide range.
When To Call A Pest Management Company
Should you experience major challenges in your garden with pests who are now deciding to move indoors and are targeting your home or office, give Kallvest a call to assist.
As an integrated pest management solutions company, they have the knowledge, experience, and expertise to assist you with your pest management challenge.
