Environmentally Friendly Gardening

The use of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is on the rise and with good reason. By releasing beneficial insects into your yard and garden, you can reduce the amount of poisons and pesticides you use. Besides the obvious environmental concerns, over-using pesticides will eventually lead to their ineffectiveness.

Perhaps the most common beneficial insect is the Ladybird Beetle, better known as the Ladybug. Both the larvae and adults feed on aphids, scales, mealybugs, and other small insects. Below is list of just a few of the helpful little critters and why you would want them around:

Aphid Midge: a larva eats more than sixty species of aphids.

Assassin Bug: predator of many common pests, including flies and caterpillars.

Braconid Wasp: lay eggs that parasitize and kill aphids, armyworms, cabbageworms, corn borers, elm bark beetles, some flies, and other insects.

Lacewing: both adults and larvae are predators of aphids, mealybugs, and other soft insects.

Minute Pirate Bug: predators of thrips, spider mites, small caterpillars, immature leafhoppers, and insect eggs.

Nematode: attack and parasitize many soil-dwelling immature insects such as fleas, root weevils, corn rootworms, and the grubs of many beetle species.

Nearly all of these insects, and many others, are available commercially. Quite a few occur naturally. In order to successfully use IPM in your gardening, you must provide the bugs with food and shelter. A general approach is to plant known host plants in and around your yard. In his book, Dead Daisies Make Me Crazy, Loren Nancarrow suggests using dill, carrots, caledulas, zinnias, sunflowers, basil, thyme, sage, asters, yarrow, marigolds, parsley, and artemisia. He also suggests that you provide a water source, such as a birdbath or saucer of water placed on the ground.

If you're still not sure about deliberately releasing creepy-crawlies into your garden, consider who is already using them. A predatory mite called Persimilis has been used by California strawberry growers since 1987, when Plictran, a pesticide for spider mites, was suddenly withdrawn from the market because it was found to be dangerous to humans. Disney World currently uses methods, including the use of horticultural oils and bacterial controls along with the release of beneficial insects, on 40 square miles of property. The Pest Management team has been able to reduce the use of harsh chemical pesticides by 70% in the last five years.

For more information, pick up a copy of Loren Nancarrow and Janet Hogan Taylor's book, Dead Daisies Make Me Crazy from Ten Speed Press. There are also quite a few web sites you can visit such as www.waltdisneyworld.com, the National Wildlife Federation's site at www.nwf.org/habitats, www.hgtv.com, or the University of Vermont Extension Service's page on biological pest control at http://ctr.uvm.edu/ctr/pubs/apc817.htm.

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Endowment Program
United Way Donations
Flowers for Wildlife
Protectors of Wildlife

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