Attracting Beneficial Insects~ Ladybugs
One of my absolute favorite beneficial insects is the the ladybug. Ladybugs are small round beetles that range in color from red to orange, with black spots.
If you want to avoid using chemical pesticides, attracting beneficial insects to your garden becomes very important. It’s a vicious cycle, once you use pesticides it’s hard to get beneficial insects like lady beetles to come to your garden.
So how do you attract ladybugs to your garden?
- Ladybugs love strong scented herbs and flowers with plenty of pollen. Some of their favorites include dill, cosmos, cilantro, fennel, tansy, and yarrow.
- Provide plenty of mulch or ground cover for your ladybugs to hide under during the heat of the day.
- A source of moisture will help keep your ladybugs home. A small fountain or pond, or a small basin with rocks in it sunk into the ground will help provide moisture for beneficial insects.
Lately ladybugs have received a bad rap for invading houses in the early spring and summer. The invading ladybugs are not the native variety, they are a newly introduced Asian lady beetle. These beetles are also great at eating pests in your garden, but it can be a pain to keep the Asian ladybug out of the house.
Image via sxc.hu