Encourage Beneficial Insects in a Small Garden
Meadow Wildflower Seeds and Insect Boxes to Attract Useful Bugs
Jul 16, 2009
Many species of insect are useful in the garden, and some are extremely beautiful.
Flowers and Pollinators
The insect/flower relationship has had millions of years to evolve. Some flowers are generalists, attracting many insects, while others are specialists and only appeal to a few species. The same is true of the pollinating insects – some will visit anything pretty, while others only go for a particular plant.
The plants that grow wild in any habitat (often they would be called weeds) have a long association with the pollinating insects that are also adapted to the place. These two communities (the wildflowers and the insects) get along well together – a lot of native wildflowers means a lot of native insect species.
Unfortunately modern agriculture and conventional gardening are often bent on eliminating these weeds.
Special Areas for Wild Species
- Many farmers have become aware of the benefits of leaving strips of uncultivated land between crop fields. Wild plants grow there, and the insects that like them move in. The benefit comes when the insects pop out into the crops and pollinate (or eat harmful insects).
- Gardeners can have the same helpful allies by reserving a patch as a wild garden. Any area left for long enough will eventually have a rich mix of plants and insects, but sowing wildflower seeds can speed up the process. Meadows contain lots of beautiful wild flowers alongside the grasses, so a commercial mix of (local) wild meadow species is probably best.
Gardeners are often very tidy people, so the nesting and overwintering places for insect usually end up on the bonfire. Piles of leaves and twigs are good for the insects that are attracted to wild gardens, but tidy people often erect commercial insect boxes (bug houses) close to the wild bit of the garden to avoid piles of unsightly rubbish.
Benefits from Wild Insects
- Wild insects will not travel far unless they have to, so a wild meadow area and suitable nesting and overwintering accommodation will keep them nearby.
- Some insects will visit any flowers in the locality, and these will pollinate the garden flowers and crop plants.
- Other insects will have come to terrorise the natives, who will provide a natural form of pest control. When unhelpful insects arrive in the garden these wild insects will sally forth and zap them!
Attracting Butterflies to a Butterfly Garden
They are not particularly good pollinators, and the do not kill pest insects – but they are beautiful. Some flowers seem to attract a huge number of butterflies (Joe Pye Weed is a good example).
Adult butterflies need flowers, but they lay their eggs on other plants for their caterpillars to munch on. For example the Hummingbird Hawk Moth likes lavender, but the caterpillars prefer Lady’s Bedstraw – while the Monarch Butterfly loves Joe Pye Weed, and the caterpillar needs milkweed.
Detailed research is needed to find out which butterflies can be expected in a given area, and what the adults and their caterpillars require.
When all is done, it's wise to avoid insecticides like the plague, and consider attracting wild birds too.
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