Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Attracting Beneficial Insects to our Yards

Native Trout Lily


     Native spring blooming plants attract beneficial insects to your yard.   In the early spring, native plants like blood root, trout lily, and violets provide early season food for beneficial insects.  These insects will help protect your landscape over the season from some harmful pest insects.   Caterpillars that defoliate trees can be eaten by benefical insects that lay their eggs in harmful caterpillers.   These beneficial insects are called parasitoids.  Parasitoids can be small native wasps. Usually these wasps are so small you need a hand lens to see them.   In your landscape these beneficial insects can only survive with your help.   By not spraying with dangerous pesticides that kill all insects and by providing habitat and food for the beneficial insects by planting flowering perennials, shrubs, and trees, we can help make our world more chemical free. 
   Each one of us can help reestablish the balance of nature in our own backyard.
    

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