Insects in the Garden

When I mention insects in the garden I bet you started to imagine all those creepy crawlies that you don't like.

• ants
• earwigs
• mealybugs
• wooly aphids
• wasps
• slaters
  
  • harlequin beetles
    

Good Insects
Well, hang on a minute there. I was actually going to talk about all the good insects that can also inhabit your garden like

• lacewings
• hoverflies and
• ladybugs

We seem to be always looking for ways to get rid of the bad bugs but just how do we get the good bugs? You just can't go out and buy a bucket load of them in the supermarket or garden centre.

Here's the secret. If you plant certain plants in your garden, they will attract the good bugs who will shoo away the bad bugs. How about that? Could it really be that easy?

Good Plants
Here's a list of these special plants. Search them out in your garden centre or mail order catalogue.
These plants will attract lacewings. Lacewings prey on aphids. Aphids attack your roses.

• yarrow - Achillea millefolium
• golden rod - Solidago virgaurea
• chamomile - Chamaemelum nobile

These plants attract ladybugs.

• yarrow - Achillea millefolium       
• calendula, also called pot marigolds - Calendula officinalis

These plants attract hoverflies

• yarrow - Achillea millefolium
• lovage - Levisticum officinale
• dill - Anethum graveolens
• sweet cicely - Myrrhis odoratum
• fennel - Foeniculum officinale
• golden rod - Solidago virgaurea
• centaury - Centaurium erythraea
  
  You can see from the lists above that your first purchase can be yarrow and golden rod. This will be a good start to attracting all these insects into your garden.

Happy gardening

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