Flowers & Food for Beneficial Insects
In general, beneficials like flowers that look like daisies or Queen Anne's Lace, according to Cornell University. Choose flowers in those families from our huge selection of open-pollinated flower and wildflower seeds and organic herb seeds. Make your garden a great place to stay when you welcome them with our Good Bug Food, and repeat that during dry spells.Flowering Cover Crops
We have flowering cover crops designed to make the beneficial insects say, "Yum!" and stick around. Our special cover crop, the Good Bug Blend, has been field-proven for over a decade in large and small scale growing areas. Since the mix blooms nearly year-round, Good Bug Blend should be planted in areas which can go a little wild, such as field borders, ditch banks, and fence rows. Typically, you need to plant only 1% to 5% of your land with this mix for good results. We also created a mix that will grow only 2 feet tall (perfect to tuck under trees or grape vines, or in the home garden) -- our Low-Growing Good Bug Blend. Both mixes are full of clovers, wild carrots, sweet alyssum, yarrow, and parsley -- attracting our admiring eyes along with the beneficial insects.What Ladybugs Like
We have ladybugs to release in your garden. Put up a Ladybug House to make them comfortable. Their favorite flowers include alyssum, buckwheat, coriander, dill, fennel, Rocky Mountain penstemon, Queen Anne's Lace, sunflowers, and common yarrow.Where Mantids Pray
Expand your Praying Mantid population with one of our cases of egg sacs. Mantids will hover in some cover, waiting for their prey to wander by. The drawback to praying mantids? They will eat any bug, whether it's one we think is "good" or "bad". So don't put the egg case in your butterfly garden or near your bee hives. The plants that mantids prefer are any with bugs on them, or plants with green stalks and leaves that will serve as cover.What Green Lacewings Love
The sparkly and decorative green lacewings enjoy many of the same flowers as the ladybugs. Their menu list includes angelica, caraway, coriander, cosmos, dill, fennel, Queen Anne's Lace, and sunflowers.Books About Good & Bad Bugs
This is a crucial topic for organic gardeners and farmers, so we bring you as much information as we can. We have a whole category of books on Pest Management. * Favorites are the handy Landscape Pests ID Cards to carry outdoors. * Prefer just one book on both pests and diseases? Try Rodale's The Organic Gardener's Handbook of Natural Pest and Disease Control.
Grow plants for predator beneficial insects and enjoy a flowery, balanced garden.