When I was plan my garden I wanted to draw beneficial insects . I wondered what I could plant ( in Florida ) that would bring good bugs into my garden . So I did a picayune enquiry and found some flowers and things that thrive here in the sunshine state but also benefit the bees , wasps , mosquito hawk , ladybugs and other helpful insect .
What can I do to attract good insect to my garden?The best path to attract estimable glitch into your garden is to have luck of industrial plant diversity . A large legal age of bug are really beneficial to us , less than 1 % of all bugs can be see a pest . By having slew of diverseness in your garden you are giving bug a dwelling house and a food for thought source . If you have a pest problem that ask immediate attention you could always bribe predator hemipteran and release them in the garden . however , this is a temporary jam .
When I consider of good insect I right away opine of pollinator , like bee . But there are hatful of other terrific bugs for the garden . Some bug eat other bugs and some bugs help you build rich , glum garden grease .
Beneficial insect pollenate your garden and prey on pestis . Plant diverseness is the paint to attract bug . you could buy them . Beneficials need nectar , pollen and habitat .
Attract Beneficial Insects To Your Florida Garden
The best way to attract helpful bug , is to implant all sorts of plants . The more multifariousness you have in your garden the better off you are .
This does n’t mean leave weed to originate .
This mean that you should maximize your space with purposefully prefer beneficial plant . Bugs , like us want home plate and solid food . The more we provide the more there will be .
Each plant has made the list as benficial plants because they attract hemipteron and work well with other plants that may be in the garden .
All of these plants are beneficial to us in Florida especially because they have a go at it our climate so they need little concern . In other words , they leave the least input with vast output . Some of these plant not only bring good insects but they can act as food for you as well .
Basil
I ’ve recover basil super easy to grow , I started some from cum two years ago and I have n’t planted again . It maintain popping up without me even trying . I let my works go to seed the first year and then I just gave them a skilful handshaking as I cut them out of the garden . I hardly handle for my basil , I would say this is one of the easy good plants to grow in the garden . It attracts dragonflies , wasps and plenty of other flying piranha .
Florida friendly smorgasbord : Greek Column - Lesbos , Dwarf Greek Basil . Spicy Globe , Marseillaise Dwarf .
Blanket Flower
Also known as Gaillardia , it has hopeful shiny flowers that are unremarkably red and yellow . They are fantastic at attracting pollinator . It ’s a aboriginal to Florida and can defy just about any soil case . you’re able to use it as a ground book binding to also help retain wet in the garden .
Cilantro
Cilantro is actually link up to Daucus carota sativa , they are in the same family . Cilantro attracts white Anglo-Saxon Protestant and hover flies . Two great beneficial insects in the garden . It stomach light frost and can be grown in warmer weather . however the longer and hotter the days the immediate the plant will bolt . This makes the plant bitter . This is no braggy deal to the bugs , but you probably wo n’t wish the taste of it any longer .
Florida friendly varieties : Slow Bolt , Leisure , Costa Rica , California , Lemon , Delfino , Moroccan .
Dill
Anethum graveolens is a very strong redolent plant , it repels aphids and soupcon . It draw swallowtail butterfly stroke , wasps and honeybees . The best time to constitute is our “ gloaming time ” . In Florida that s between September and December . Dill does n’t graft well , it ’s best to buy seeds . Like basil dill is spry to ressed itself .
Marigolds
You probably see these guy wire everywhere . It ’s because they are easy to produce . They are constantly flower and appeal pollinators and other beneficial flying insects . Marigolds can be used as a border to your garden or packed tight and used as a ground screening . you could find them in almost any garden snapper . There is a debate about if marigolds are helpful or harmful to your garden . While I have read that they attract slugs and other pestilence to your garden , I have n’t really had a major proceeds wheneever I set them . Florida soilusually has nematodes in it and marigolds repel them , making this plant especially helpful for Florida horticulture .
Milkweed
Another works that loves Florida ’s weather and is punishing to kill . They famous for attracting monarch butterflies but their orangish efflorescence are also a peachy nectar industrial plant for bee and other flying insects . you’re able to find them in most nurseries and they are a great addition to your garden . The whole plant is full of a milky sap which is how it gets it ’s name . There are in reality a stack of kinds of milkweed but there are two that are commonly grown in Florida .
Florida friendly varieties : butterfly stroke weed , tropic sess
Nasturtiums
Are great because they not only attract bugs with their courteous flowers but they also grow handsome green leaves that are edible . The plant also produces seed pods and peak that we can eat too . Native to South America , they fail back during a freeze but they They can be grown class around in most parts of Florida . They do well against pestis not having many natural predators . There are vining types and overshadow bush types . These are great for spring up up a chain connection fencing for privacy or using as a land cover in the garden . both can be found commonly call garden nasturtiums but the vining character ’s scientific name isT. majusand the midget bush type isT. minus .
What Insects Are Beneficial In The Garden?
Beneficial insects pollinate your garden and eat your garden pests for dinner party .
Most people think bugs are “ shitty ” Ew .
bug are crazy .
Alien like even . Antenna , legs , weird orb . When you guess about them they are pretty unearthly but a large absolute majority of them are really helpful to us in the garden . only 1 % of bugs are actually pests , . Just act the odds secret plan , the more bug that you have in your garden the well .
Bees
bee are a pollinator . They flee around your garden spreading plant pollen all over the place . pollinator help your garden produce more yield . Bees are probably the most popular pollinator but there are many others .
Butterflies
Another pollinator that will avail you boost your food production .
Dragonfly
mosquito hawk are predator bugs . They like to fall out in tall develop plant and watch for other flying glitch that they can tail and raven while flying . They are n’t fussy eaters and will exhaust just about anything . Some of them are even cannibals . darning needle consume dragonflies . however , devil’s darning needle are also raven upon by frogs and hiss , which also benefit your garden .
Hoverflies
They look like minuscule bee that are really fast . They wo n’t harm you though . They profit your garden by laying eggs , commonly on the undersides of your plants leaves . When those eggs hatch , out come little caterpillars which eat aphids and other delicate bodied bug .
Lady Bugs
Another predator that look super cute to us . Ask any aphid , thrips or white vanish if lady bugs are cute and they will look at you like you ’re crazy . To them ma’am bugs are monsters . gentlewoman bugs are a fantastic predator to have in the garden . Ladybugs will prey on a number of other gentle bodied insects .
Lacewings
The adult form of a lacewing fly is green and slender . It has vein exculpated wings and prosperous eyes . The adult flie class does n’t really wipe out any bugs on your plant but as larvae they are expectant . Like the lady bug they will eat almost any gentle bodeid insect . matter like aphids , mites , and thripid .
Beetles
There are all sorts of beetle that can be living in your garden , some on your industrial plant and others in the dirt .
Ground beetles are nocturnal beetle that experience in your filth . They are helpful by not only eating other bugs in the garden but they are also help you build soill . They help with aeration by creep through your shite . Ground mallet also have to employ the bathroom , so all of their waste becomes great fertiliser for your garden .
Soldier beetles hang out on your plants eat caterpillar and soft bodied insects like aphids .
Spiders
There are a lot of different kind of spiders . They are mostly all predators . These thigns give me the creeping , I do n’t really like spiders but I prize them in the garden . If it was n’t for my girl being a capturing the random spiders in the firm to release them there would be a lot more dead spider in this existence . Most spiders are not harmful to homo but there are definitelysome that can be significantly harmful to you .
Centipedes
Are another predator of many harmful insects in the garden . They also can be found dwell in your grime but coming out to prey . Like the earth beetle they benefit your soil by aeration and impregnation .
Wasps
Wasps are a forked whammy . They not only land on your flowers to help you cross-pollinate but they predate on scads of thing . Parasitic wasps will actually consist egg in caterpillar like the tomato plant horn louse . It looks like something out of a moving-picture show . As the testicle develop , they apply the host caterpillar to feed on , finally kill it .
what plants attract what bugs
Some plants not only attract beneficial insect but they also repel harmful ones .
Nasturtium is a particularly helpful one in the garden . It attracts circumstances of pollinator with it ’s beautiful ( and edible ) flowers but it also repel circle of bugs we think pestss from not only itself , but other plant surrounding plant too .
Out of all of these plant I have found milkweed and basil to be the easiest to grow . I have n’t even planted basil in 2 year and it just keeps popping back up .
Can I Spray These Plants With Pesticides?
Sure youcan .
But
You wouldn’twantto .
Pesticides damage both harmful and helpful insects in the garden . There are certain spray that only target a select brute .
For representative , B.t.only kills caterpillars . But some caterpillars are good for the garden .
Even constitutive and “ all - natural ” sprays harm beneficial insect too . The whole compass point of planting these plant is to contribute in bugs . More safe bugs than bad bugs in hopes of having the honorable guy help oneself you out by kill the bad cat . By spray you are eliminating both , the good and the sorry .
By plant beneficial plants your destination is to make a healthy ecosystem . One that does n’t need venomous interposition .
Related Questions
What Insects Harm The Garden ?
Aphids , Caterpillars , Mealy bugs , white-hot flies , leaf miner and thrips are some of the common I . They all harm your industrial plant differently . Some have a pointy mouth that pierces your works to suck it ’s juices out . Others distribute disease and some eat the leaves just like you and I do .
Best Soil To engraft
I ’ve always had upright fortune with a land mixture like this :
I think this mix will work if you are design on using it in a farm bed or adding it to your Florida grunge . I ’ve always had pretty good fate with it .
Your best bet is to continue to build your territory extra time . Just keep adding organic material . Leaves , modest branches , compost , etc …
