Attracting Beneficial Insects

Oct 1, 1998 - © Deborah Turton

of worm casings. When I planted carrots in last month, I easily had enough worm casings to lay down an inch layer of casings in which to start my carrots.

It takes time to attract beneficial insects. It always seems to me that the pest insects always show up first. If you can't attract beneficial insects fast enough, you can use some other organic method of control, or you can buy beneficial insects.

Your garden will always have ‘pest' insects around. However, if your soil and plants are healthy and the beneficial insects are present, your garden will still thrive and produce wonderful flowers and vegetables. In fact, letting a small population of ‘pests' survive is a good way of keeping the beneficials happy and well fed. This keeps them around in case your garden develops a severe infestation of a problem insect.

References for this Column

Carr, Anna et al, 1991. Rodale's Chemical-Free Yard and Garden, Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press.

Garret, J. Howard, 1995. The Dirt Doctor's Guide to Organic Gardening, Austin: The University of Texas Press.

Jesiolowski Cebenko, Jill (1997) "Garden pests and how to Control Them!" Organic Gardening, May/June: 32-37.

Long, Cheryl (ed.), 1993, Attracting Beneficials Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press.

Poncavage, Joanna, 1996, "10 Pests and their Natural Enemies." Organic Gardening, May/June: 41-49.

Starcher, Allison Mia, 1995. Good Bugs for Your Garden, Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.

The copyright of the article Attracting Beneficial Insects in Organic Gardening is owned by Deborah Turton. Permission to republish Attracting Beneficial Insects in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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