Plants That Attract Beneficial Insects

[John3]

Originally Posted by Tracydr

Basil, all kinds.
Dill.
Cilantro
Any alliums allowed to flower-elephant garlic, leeks

Tracydr which beneficial insect(s) does the Basil and Alliums attracts?

[John3]

Originally Posted by Mudman

The last couple of years I have planted carrots early and some of them flowered. They were a great attraction for the ladybugs.

Mudman nice to know that the flowering carrot tops attracts Ladybugs. Does certain types of carrots work better than others?

[Tracydr]

So, my lettuce and bolted radishes are literally covered with lady bugs and their larvae with not an aphid to be seen. Have an infestation starting on the tomatoes.
I keep moving the little larvae over to the tomatoes and they won't stay put. Same with the adults.
Stupid bugs!!!

[Tracydr]

Originally Posted by John3

Tracydr which beneficial insect(s) does the Basil and Alliums attracts?

The bees. And alliums also attract hummingbirds. Hummingbird eat lots of nasty bugs, especially mosquitoes, plus they're just cool to watch.
I think there were butterflies on my leeks last year, too.
My Spanish lavender is always covered with honey bees while in bloom.
Nastaturiums are a great trap crap for aphids, which allows the good bugs to get a foothold, like lacewings and ladybugs. I seed them in the fall because they take their sweet time coming up, here anyway. They're sort of a cool season flower but AZ has upside down seasons for flowers. They seem to take a long time getting established, then bloom in early spring, die back when it gets really hot.
They don like to be transplanted, either, so stick the seeds where you want them.
Parsley, attracts hover flies and tachnid wasps, it's a really great crop when it flowers. Also good for butterflies. Same with dill and fennel.

[John3]

Originally Posted by Tracydr

So, my lettuce and bolted radishes are literally covered with lady bugs and their larvae with not an aphid to be seen. Have an infestation starting on the tomatoes.
I keep moving the little larvae over to the tomatoes and they won't stay put. Same with the adults.
Stupid bugs!!!

Have you tried planting the radishes close to the tomato plants? And let them bolt into the tomato growth?

[John3]

Originally Posted by Tracydr

The bees. And alliums also attract hummingbirds. Hummingbird eat lots of nasty bugs, especially mosquitoes, plus they're just cool to watch.
I think there were butterflies on my leeks last year, too.
My Spanish lavender is always covered with honey bees while in bloom.
Nastaturiums are a great trap crap for aphids, which allows the good bugs to get a foothold, like lacewings and ladybugs. I seed them in the fall because they take their sweet time coming up, here anyway. They're sort of a cool season flower but AZ has upside down seasons for flowers. They seem to take a long time getting established, then bloom in early spring, die back when it gets really hot.
They don like to be transplanted, either, so stick the seeds where you want them.
Parsley, attracts hover flies and tachnid wasps, it's a really great crop when it flowers. Also good for butterflies. Same with dill and fennel.

Thanks for all the tips Tracydr - hummingbirds and alliums > like this one

[babice]

Hello - my favorite book on this is "Carrots Love Tomatoes". It is this book that prompted me to both (1) plant basil, garlic, onion, carrot, parsley, rosemary, sage and thyme with toms (when they were in the earth versus containers)...also had mint growing nearby and (2) plant marigolds, onions, garlic, parsley, etc. with roses. Last year, I had parsley and carrots planted together to the left of the toms...all the caterpillars stayed on the parsley (some lovely ones in fact) and didn't eat it enough to the point that I didn't have enough parsley for our own personal use. I had 3 basil plants in the row between the tom rows; I had a garlic growing between the toms and a chive growing very close. I also have asparagus in the middle of where I had the toms along with the basil, sage and rosemary I mentioned - maybe it was luck but I never had any problems on the asparagus with insects.....not even the japanese beetles that swarm every year. I'm not planting my toms in the ground this year. I'm experimenting with containers. So I'm going to put some dill under a tree out in the yard and let it go to seed to attract bees, etc. I'm going to have borage growing nearby. And I'm going to put garlic, onion, 1 carrot seed and 1 parsely in the container with the toms this year.

[Mudman]

Originally Posted by John3

Mudman nice to know that the flowering carrot tops attracts Ladybugs. Does certain types of carrots work better than others?

I always plant the rainbow carrots and it seems that the white ones are the ones that flower. I'm sure any kind would work. They are biennials though so you would have to overwinter them, or accidentally trick them the way I do.

[stonysoilseeds]

it is a good point when you consider the fact that you plant trap crops like nasturtium to attract the parasitic insects like aphids it works on the contrary with beneficial plants serving as host trap plants for predatory and pollinating insects

[Wi-sunflower]

If you have problems with Colorado Potato Beetles, try to get Lady Bugs on your potatoes or Eggplant plants early. The lady bugs won't get rid of the mature CPBs but WILL feast on the larva enough to keep them at a reasonable level.

I've done it for eggplant for quite a few years. I'm not sure how well it works for potatoes. But what does work for potatoes is to plant some of the oriental eggplant plants (those with the purple caylix ) around your potatoes. CPBs LOVE the oriental eggplant and will destroy them in a few days. They make a perfect trap crop for CPBs.

Carol

[Elizabeth]

Any color carrot will work, they all bolt sooner or later. They readily re-seed themselves. If you let them go to seed you will have lots of carrot "weeds" for the next couple of years. Not necessarily a bad thing, but they will come up sometimes several feet away from the mother plant.

Cosmos also readily re-seeds. Plant them once, and you will have them forever (not a bad thing, I think they are pretty). Once the seeds have matured little birds will be attracted to the garden - they love cosmos seeds and will perch on the flower and munch away, even if the plant bows a bit from their weight (it bounces back). Some varieties will grow quite tall (several feet) so you may have to yank volunteers that threaten to overshade crops.

I second the keeping Lemon Balm in pots (ditto with spearmint). It spreads by seeds and by underground stolens.

Yarrow forms clumps with deep roots and is hard to dig up once established, it seems to become one with the soil, which is probably why it's fairly drought tolerant.

Tansy can become invasive. Both tansy and yarrow are kinda stinky, sort of like the smellier kind of marigolds.

Sweet alyssum readily re-seeds (oh man, does it re-seed LOL)

Queen Anne's Lace can get really big (tall and wide). Since it is such a close relative to carrots I would stick to carrots as a companion in the garden, the same beneficials will be attracted to both. When the plants are small they look too much alike and you might harvest QAL thinking it's a domesticated carrot.

Closely related plants are probably going to entice the same beneficials to your garden so you can get away with just one or two in a family. All of the Umbelliferae (Angelica, Yarrow, Carrots, Cilantro, Parsley, Fennel, Lovage, Celery, Caraway, Dill, Parsnips) will attract ladybugs, parasitic wasps and predatory flies for example.

Basil will mostly attract butterflies, it's not really used to bring in predators.

Diversity in your plantings, interplanting and allowing some plants to flower and go to seed will improve the general health of your garden. Nature on it's own keeps things in balance in the insect wars. It's only when we plant jillions of a particular crop in close proximity with no variation that the bad guys get out of hand.

If you want to get into companion planting, I second Babice's recommendation, "Carrots love Tomatoes", it is a good starting point. Another good book is "Good Bug, Bad Bug" by Jessica Walliser. The good bug section lists plants that attract each beneficial insect.

[John3]

This thread keeps growing with information thanks guys.



Thanks Elizabeth for this very helpful insight and for the heads up on the "Good Bug, Bad Bug" book

Originally Posted by Elizabeth

Any color carrot will work, they all bolt sooner or later. They readily re-seed themselves. If you let them go to seed you will have lots of carrot "weeds" for the next couple of years. Not necessarily a bad thing, but they will come up sometimes several feet away from the mother plant.

Cosmos also readily re-seeds. Plant them once, and you will have them forever (not a bad thing, I think they are pretty). Once the seeds have matured little birds will be attracted to the garden - they love cosmos seeds and will perch on the flower and munch away, even if the plant bows a bit from their weight (it bounces back). Some varieties will grow quite tall (several feet) so you may have to yank volunteers that threaten to overshade crops.

I second the keeping Lemon Balm in pots (ditto with spearmint). It spreads by seeds and by underground stolens.

Yarrow forms clumps with deep roots and is hard to dig up once established, it seems to become one with the soil, which is probably why it's fairly drought tolerant.

Tansy can become invasive. Both tansy and yarrow are kinda stinky, sort of like the smellier kind of marigolds.

Sweet alyssum readily re-seeds (oh man, does it re-seed LOL)

Queen Anne's Lace can get really big (tall and wide). Since it is such a close relative to carrots I would stick to carrots as a companion in the garden, the same beneficials will be attracted to both. When the plants are small they look too much alike and you might harvest QAL thinking it's a domesticated carrot.

Closely related plants are probably going to entice the same beneficials to your garden so you can get away with just one or two in a family. All of the Umbelliferae (Angelica, Yarrow, Carrots, Cilantro, Parsley, Fennel, Lovage, Celery, Caraway, Dill, Parsnips) will attract ladybugs, parasitic wasps and predatory flies for example.

Basil will mostly attract butterflies, it's not really used to bring in predators.

Diversity in your plantings, interplanting and allowing some plants to flower and go to seed will improve the general health of your garden. Nature on it's own keeps things in balance in the insect wars. It's only when we plant jillions of a particular crop in close proximity with no variation that the bad guys get out of hand.

If you want to get into companion planting, I second Babice's recommendation, "Carrots love Tomatoes", it is a good starting point. Another good book is "Good Bug, Bad Bug" by Jessica Walliser. The good bug section lists plants that attract each beneficial insect.