Organic News 3

thumb is to designate between 5 and 10 percent of your garden
or farm space to plants that bring in beneficials. An important
key is to plant so that there are blooms year-round
— the beneficial insects will not stay or survive through a
season if no food is available. This continuous-bloom feature
in farmscaping has earned the practice the nickname “chocolate
box ecology” — your garden or farm will be beautiful
year-round with a variety of colorful blooms and humming
insects.
D
ay and night, pesticide-free organic gardens are
abuzz with activity, much of it a life-and-death
struggle between predators and prey. We seldom see much
of this natural pest control, in which tiny assassins, soldiers
and lions — aka “beneficial insects” (the bugs that eat other
bugs) — patrol their surroundings in pursuit of their next
meal. Assassin bugs aren’t picky: They will stab, poison and
devour a wide range of garden pests, including caterpillars,
leafhoppers and bean beetles. Soldier and carabid beetles
work the night shift, emerging after dark from beneath
rocks, mulch and other daytime hiding places to feast upon
soft-bodied insects and the eggs of Colorado potato beetles.
Aphid lions (the larvae of the lacewing) have a hooked jaw
that helps them dispatch huge numbers of aphids, caterpillars,
mites and other pests.
These and many other beneficial insects are wellequipped
to see, smell and/or taste a potential
meal. Sometimes they’re alerted by the plants themselves, as
some emit a chemical alarm signal when pest insects begin
feeding on them, and nearby beneficial insects are quick to
respond. If your garden is teeming with beneficials, these
bugs may often thwart budding pest infestations before
you’ve even noticed the threat. It’s nature’s way of managing
pests — no pesticides required.
Judging from different reports across the globe,
tapping the support of beneficial garden insects
is one of our best tools for natural pest control. By providing
a welcoming habitat — shelter, water and alternate
food — you’ll encourage these insect helpers to maintain
year-round residence in your garden. You can then kick back
and enjoy the natural pest control provided by the diverse
and amazingly complex balance among what we humans see
as the “good bugs” and the “bad bugs.”
Habitats for beneficial bugs go by several names,
such as “farmscape,” “eco-scape” and, in Europe,
“beetle banks.” The concept of “farmscaping” to promote
natural pest control isn’t new, but designing studies to
confirm exactly what works best for a given crop in various
regions is challenging. An increasing number of researchers
has been exploring these complex interactions between
insects and plants to find new ways gardeners and farmers
can grow food without resorting to toxic pesticides. The
information here will equip you to put this growing body of
knowledge to work in your garden.
7 Ways to Welcome Beneficial Insects
1. PLANT A NECTARY SMORGASBORD OF FLOWERS.
When they can’t feed on insect pests in your
garden, beneficial insects need other food to
survive and reproduce. Having certain flowering plants in
or near your garden supplies that food in the form of nectar
and pollen. Beneficials use the sugar in nectar as fuel when
searching for prey and reproducing, and the protein in pollen
helps support the development of their eggs.
Which plants are easiest for them to tap? Researchers
have identified the following groups
whose flowers provide easily accessible nectar and pollen: 1)
plants in the daisy family, such as aster, cosmos and yarrow;
2) plants in the carrot family, such as cilantro, dill, fennel,
parsley and wild carrot; 3) alyssum and other members of
the mustard family; 4) mints; and 5) buckwheats.
Plants in these families are especially good because
their clusters of very small flowers make accessing
their nectar and pollen easier for many insects. Beneficial
garden insects can be broadly categorized as generalists —
those that eat most anything they can catch — and specialists
— those that feed on just one or a small array of prey.
The plants mentioned above can be used by both types, says
Mary Gardiner, assistant professor of entomology at Ohio
State University.
ISSUE III 49