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JANUARY MEETING 2001
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Sally Cunningham from the Cornell Cooperative Extension, author, TV personality, and gardener, presented a program on "Beneficial Insects In And Around Your Pond". Sally also touched a little on perennials, perennials for soggy situations, and vegetable gardens.
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Flowers For Attracting Beneficial Insects To Your Garden
By Sally Jean Cunningham, Extension Educator,
Erie county
There are hundreds of beneficial insects available in nature that can help control insect pests in the home vegetable and flower garden. Many beneficial insects are predators, such as lady beetles, lacewings, Ground Beetles, Soldier Beetles, Assassin Bugs, Big-eyed Bugs, Hover Flies, Robber Flies, Dragon Flies, Spiders, and many more. Predators hunt and eat other insects, and most of them are non-specific; that is, they eat many kinds of insects. Some insects are predators in both the adult and larval stages, like the lady beetle, and others only during one of its stages. Other benficials are parasitoids, insect which they lay their eggs on or in some stage of another insect (the "host"), and their young devour or digest the host insect. There are many kinds of parasitoid wasps and filies, from extremely tiny ones ( such as Trichogramma wasps) to the very large (i.e. lchneumonid wasps, which can be 1 1/2 to 2 inches long.) Tachinid flies - large, bristley, sometimes with red or tan colored bodies - are also common parasitoids.
To attract beneficial insects to your home garden, you must provide water, food, and protection. Water can be in small dishes on the ground and at waist height, such as birdbaths - but it should be shallow and include pebbles for the insects to emerge. Shelter is provided by ground cover, low-growing plants, and permanent plantings such as perennials or shrubs that provide over-wintering locations. Food is in two forms: pest insect - which arrive naturally and which you do not eradicate by spraying - and nectar and pollen provided by flowering plants.
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Nectar and Pollen-Producing Plants:
To maintain a large and diverse population of beneficial insects around your garden, you should provide nectar and pollen during the longest possible growing season. Try to choose a series of flowers that will bloom continuously from spring though fall, from several plant families. The plant families that have been proven to attract and feed the largest numbers of beneficial insects are the Daisy family (Compositae) and the Parsley family (Umbelliferae), but there are many useful plants from other families such as Dipsaceae and Cruciferae as well. If the home gardener chooses a variety of flowering plants, and does not spray the garden with pesticides, there will certainly be many beneficial insect attracted.
The following list represents some recommended plants for this purpose. those marked with an Asterisk (*) have shown significant insect counts in scientific studies available at this time, but other members of the same same plant family are very likely to be helpful.
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(Composite):
Arctotis stoechadifolia (African Daisy)
Brachycome* iberdifolia (Swan River Daisy)
Calendula* officinalis (Pot marigold)
Convolvulus minor* (Morning Glory)
Coreopsis calliopsis (Tickseed)
Cosmos pinnatus (White Sensation* especially)
Felicia amelloides (Blur Marguerite)
Gaillarida pulchella*
Gazania linearis
Gerbera jamesonii (Transvaal Daisy)
Helianthus annuus* (Sunflower)
Nemophila menziesii (Baby Blue-eyes)
Tagetes eredta, T. Patula (Marigolds)
*especially 'Lemon Gem'
Tithonia rotundifolia (Mexican Sunflower)
Zinnias elegans* (Zinnias)
Others: Alyssum (Lobularia maritima;
Cruciferae), Nasturtiums for ground cover unless otherwise indicated)
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Achillea* millifolium (Yarrow) A. Ptarmica
(Sneezewort) A. taygetea
Anthemis tinctoria 'Kelwayi'* (Hardy
Marguerite)
Asters (A. Novae-angliae, Michaelmas Daisy),
New England Asters, other
Chrysanthemum coccineum* (Painted Daisy)
Chrysopsis (Golden Asters)
Echinacea (Purple coneflower)
Eryngium (E. Maritimum, Sea Holly; others;
Umbelliferae)
Iberis umbellata* (Candytuft; Cruciferae)
Lavendar* (Lavandula: Labiatae)
Laitris pycnostrachya* (Blazing star, gay feather)
Linaria* (Toadflax, Scrophulariaceae)
Monarda* spp.(Bee balm; Labiatae)
Rudbeckia fulgida (Coneflower; R. Hirta,
Black-eyed Susan)
Scabiosa* (Pincushion flower; Dipsaceae)
Solidago* (Goldenrod)
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Herbs:
(Note: many herbs are Umbelliferae, with flat flower clusters that make nectar of pollen available to many small beneficial wasps and flies) The following all have shown beneficial insect populations attracted.
Angelica, Anise, Borage (for Bees especially), Caraway, Chamomile, Chervil, Dill, Fennel, Lovage, Rue, and Tansy
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