As you pursue your passion of gardening you will learn quickly about the bad insects that feast upon your plants. The common way of ridding these pests is to use insecticides or organic pests controls including homemade brews and non-toxic remedies. These remedies are made of natural ingredients. They include cayenne, garlic, horsetail, or stinging nettles. To use, you simply dilute in water and spray on the pests.
You may or may not beware that you can depend on good bugs to rid your garden of the bad bugs, too. This is truly nature in the good sense.
The Good Guys In The Battle Against Pests
The good bugs that will rid your garden of the bad bugs are common and can be attracted to your garden if you include the plants that attract them. You can, for example, create mini-sanctuaries for the good bugs in a small patch of your garden that is designed to attract and protect them.
Here is a list of nine good bugs that you should become familiar with and perhaps try to attract to your garden. Believe it or not, there are also websites on the Internet where you can buy these insects, have them sent to you and then release them into your garden.
* Damsel Bugs love to feed on such pests as aphids, caterpillars, leafhoppers, and thrips. You can collect these bugs in alfalfa fields.
* Ground Beetles chow down on slugs, snails, cutworms, and cabbage maggots. Perennials and white clover attract them.
* Ladybugs devour aphids, mites, and mealybugs. You should include angelica, coreopsis, dill, fennel, or yarrow in your garden to attract this critter.
* Lacewing larvae like to eat aphids, caterpillars, mealybugs, leafhoppers, insect eggs, and whiteflies. Flowering plants attract them.
* Hoverflies lay their eggs in pests like aphids, and then the eggs hatch and eat up their host. This bug is drawn to flowing plants.
* Parasitic Wasps kill a variety of caterpillars and aphids. They also lay their eggs inside the caterpillar eggs. The wasp egg hatches and destroys the caterpillar.
* Dragonflies feast on mosquitoes, aphids, and other pests. Include a pond or marsh in your garden or on your property to attract them.
* Bees don’t feast on any insects, but they do pollinate your garden.
* Praying Mantis feed on all bugs including the good ones. So introduce them into your garden with caution.
(Photos courtesy of: https://www.entomology.wisc.edu)
