Building A Host Environment For Beneficial Insects with Paul Zimmerman

Sometimes you WANT aphids in your garden. Let Paul Zimmerman explain why.

If you want to use beneficial insects to keep your pest problems in check (and don’t we all), you shouldn’t just buy ladybugs and release them in your garden. You should create a host environment for your beneficial bugs instead.

You see, often it isn’t the adult bugs that you need. Often it’s the larvae that do the most good patrolling and eating pests. So you really need those adult ladybugs(or other beneficials) to stick around and lay eggs. You can achieve this with these three steps:

1. Food. Do some research on which pests are terrorizing your roses and other plants, and which beneficial insects you need around to eat those pests. Then provide the kind of native perennials that your beneficial bugs like to snack on. Be sure to plant these perennials right next to your roses or other vulnerable plants so that the beneficial larvae will be around to snack on the thrips, aphids, etc.

2. Water. Leave a shallow dish, bird bath, or other clean water feature out.

3. Shelter. Hold off on pruning your bushy perennials (like Buddleia) until the spring so that beneficial insects can shelter in the rough foliage through fall and winter. You can also consider ornamental grasses or piles of old wood.

Birds can also eat pest insects, so keep them around with bird baths and feeders.

Mama Hoverfly’s story:
In early spring, Mama Hoverfly emerges and sticks around your garden for a while sipping all of the nectar-producing flowers. She knows that her larvae are going to need aphids to feed on, so she lays her eggs in your roses, where she sees early signs of aphids. The larvae hatch around the same time as the aphids arise, and the larvae constantly snack on aphids, keeping damage to your roses to a minimum. Then those larvae grow up and, thanks to the water and nectar you are providing, they hang out as adults, too. This is good because in the summertime they will lay their eggs in your roses, and the second wave of hoverfly larva will protect your roses just in time for Thrip season. But here’s the thing about Mama Hoverfly’s story—if you wiped out all the aphids first thing in the season, Mama Hoverfly would go lay her eggs elsewhere, and you won’t have the hoverfly larva you need to fight the thrips in summer.

Basically, the organic, natural way of controlling pests is healthiest for your plants in the long run, but you have to be smart enough to create a beneficial bug habitat, and you have to be patient enough to endure some pest damage early on without jumping right for the pesticide spray.

You can find some stylish shelters for your birds and beneficial bugs here: http://www.jacksonandperkins.com/bird...

And some nectar-rich perennials for the butterflies and hoverflies to sip on here:
http://www.jacksonandperkins.com/jp-b...

Thanks for watching, and happy gardening!
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