It may seem counterproductive to release insects into a well cultivated garden, but not all insects are out to destroy people’s gardens. In fact, there are many insect species that promote a garden’s health. This is probably not news to most people, but it may come as a surprise to some people to learn that many gardeners buy certain insects solely as a form of pest control. These serious gardeners will release certain predatory insects into their gardens in order to control garden pests. In addition to eradicating insect pests from a garden, some gardeners will also purchase pollinating insects in order to ensure the proper growth and cultivation of their garden’s plant life.
Gardeners may use a variety of different insects to control damaging garden pests. Ladybugs are one of the best examples of an effective garden pest killer. Ladybugs protect gardens from aphids, mites and lice woolly, just to name a few. In order to reap the benefits of a ladybug populated garden, purchasing ladybugs is not necessarily a requirement. There are several plants that can attract ladybugs to a garden. For example, ladybugs are attracted to beans, dill, carrots, peas, and many other food-producing plants. If you are only growing flowers, then daisies, yarrow, Calendula, and dandelions can be used to attract ladybugs.
In addition to ladybugs, a group of insects known as cantharides can be released into a garden in order to control insect pest populations. Cantharides are highly effective insect pest predators as they can attack damaging insects during all of their life stages, including the egg and larval stages. These insects feed on a wide variety of insect pests including aphids, mites, Colorado beetles, cucumber beetles, cabbage butterflies, butterfly larvae, grasshoppers eggs and many more. Cantharides will be more effective at destroying insect pests if plants from the Asteraceae family are planted in a garden.
Have you ever heard of a gardener purchasing insects in bulk in order to naturally eradicate certain insect garden pests?
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