Beneficial Insects - Helpful Gardeners At Work

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Do you creep at the sight of tiny multiple leg monsters on your well established beautiful garden? Do you find ways to destroy them for life? Before you take the first step think twice, as they may not be devilish insects but the friendly angels in disguise to brighten the beauty of your garden.

Not all insects are harmful. In fact, so-called beneficial insects helps you to fight the nasty ones. While some sneak in to munch on your precious seedlings while others prefer to munch on each other. The trick to a successful garden is to attract the beneficial insects and repel those that would destroy your plants.

Its not always necessary to get rid of the harmful pests with chemical. Try welcoming this insects to work for you for free. The initial investment is just fine to complete the whole process. One can buy beneficial insects at garden centers or order them over the Internet. Remember the freshly packed in warriors may not go to the war front from the start, rather they reproduce and their larvae offspring do the consuming. You can also attract these insects naturally by planting, marigolds, nasturtiums, butterfly weed, clover, coriander, dill, fennel, yarrow or wild carrot. They not only attract friendly bugs but also provide homes for friendly bugs.

The adults of many beneficial insects, feed on the nectar and pollen produced by flowering plants. Including such plants in the garden will help ensure that these friends will stick around long enough to lay their eggs on your vegetation.

So, why wait get the below friendly bugs to nurture a balanced, biologically diverse environment in the garden.

Lady Bugs : lady bugs eat aphids. Research states that each adult lady bug can consume up to 5,000 aphids in their lifetime. Anther positive ranking for this insect is that it lays between 3-4 dozen eggs per day. Their hungry larvae then join in on the aphid feast. Attract ladybugs to your garden by planting pollen-rich plants like angelica, dill, lemon balm, caraway and catnip.

Cryptolaemus beetle: Cryptolaemus beetle looks similar to the lady bugs but are darker in colour. They are great hunters, they immediately search out for their meal and gobble them up. Another interesting fact of this insect is that it lays its eggs on infested plants so that their larvae feeds on the mealy bugs too.

Praying mantis : Praying mantis mainly feeds on flies, beetles and aphids. Make sure to provide them enough food as they do occasionally eat other beneficial insects if there are not enough pests available. The best way to keep them working fine is not to overpopulate them. Purchase praying mantis egg casings and settle them out in shrubs around the garden. It takes about two weeks for them to hatch.

Research states that, when praying mantis are small, they are excellent soft-bodied insect predators. But as they get bigger, they begin to eat anything that passes in front of them including other beneficial insects, like honeybees.

Parasitic flies (Tachnidae): are commonly found in houses during early spring. If you still can't find them then look for hairy flies with the wings that protrude at a 45-degree angle. They lay eggs on caterpillars and adult beetles.

Trichogramma wasps (minutum and pretiosum): controls the growth of caterpillars.

Lightning bugs (Lampyrids) and Soldier Beetles (Cantharidae): are excellent predators of soft bodied insects like aphids.

Decollate snails : Decollate snails eat larger pest snails. However they take several weeks to get established in the garden.

Carabidae : The lowly ground beetle is common under logs and debris. Both larvae and adults are predaceous and feed on a wide variety of insects.