Terry's Gardening Tips
How to Reduce Insect Garden Pests Naturally
Natural garden pest control includes the use and encouragement of beneficial insects to reduce the presence of damaging pests on agricultural land or in your garden. It operates under the assumption that a healthy, non-chemically dependent garden will be naturally more resistant to pests, as well as filled with a variety of flowering plants and shrubs.
A healthy, diverse garden will attract beneficial creatures, such as dragonflies, praying mantis and ladybugs, which feed on pests.
Attracting and Keeping Beneficial Insects
- Reduce or eliminate the use of broad-spectrum pesticides in your garden. Birds, pollinators, and other beneficial insects are often far more sensitive to pesticides than the pests you might be trying to kill. Once pesticides eliminate the beneficial insects, pests are free to multiply without a natural check. As pest populations rise, you may be tempted to spray more frequently, but pesticides leave genetically resistant strains of pests to breed, creating an increasingly resistant pest population. The harder it becomes to kill the pest, the more you'll need to spray and the fewer natural predators you'll have to help you out.
- Provide food and water for the adult forms of beneficial insects. Although many beneficial insects perform their pest control services only during an immature stage; the adult stage feeds on nectar and pollen. You can attract and keep a wide variety of beneficial insects in your garden by including flowering plants that are rich in pollen and nectar (see list below). Some adult beneficial insects also need water to sustain them so consider providing irrigation or other sources of water through dry periods.
Insectary Plants
The flowers on these plants have nectar and pollen that are accessible to beneficial insects:
- Aster
- Baby blue eyes (Nemophila)
- Calendula (Calendula)
- Chervil (Anthriscus cerefolium)
- Coriander (Coriander sativum)
- Cosmos
- Dill (Anetum graveolens)
- Elderberry (Sambucus mexicana)
- Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare)
- Queen Anne's Lace (Daucus carota)
- Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis)
- Sunflower (Helianthus)
- Sweet alyssum (Lobularia maritima)
- Yarrow (Achillea)
Probably the best natural method of controlling such pests as bagworms and tent caterpillars is to simply to remove the bagworm or nest from the tree and kill the insects by burning or squashing them. Watch next month’s bulletin for information on natural bug sprays that will eliminate undesirable insects without harming the insects that are beneficial to your plant gardens.