If you want to keep aphids, scale insects and other annoying garden pests away without chemical insecticides, you would do well to encourage their natural predators. Ladybugs are particularly hard-working and friendly pest destroyers. There are different methods to attract them.
How to attract ladybugs to the garden?
To attract ladybugs, you can create a feral garden plot for aphids, cultivate pollen-rich plants such as herbs and flowers, and provide shelters such as leaf piles, bushes or insect hotels for them to overwinter.
The paradox of attracting beneficial insects
Basically, the easiest way to direct animals to where you want them is to use their eating preferences. This is no different for ladybugs than it is for dogs. But if you want to use ladybugs specifically against the pests that they like to eat, that is of course problematic. By promoting aphids and thereby laying a rich table for ladybugs, at first glance you have gained nothing in terms of pest decimation.
But there are alternative options. The following methods for promoting ladybugs are presented below:
- Overgrown garden plot with free pest development
- Cultivate specific pollen plants
- Create shelter
Overgrown garden plot to promote aphids and ladybirds
To solve the paradox of attracting beneficial insects, there is a trick: you can set up a buffet for the ladybugs separate from the rest of the garden. Let a back corner of your garden go completely wild and let aphids, scale insects, etc. live freely there. This gives you the chance to get lots of ladybugs in the main part of your garden. In contrast to most species of louse, the beetles are very mobile with their ability to fly. The natural nature of the aphid and ladybird garden piece is also effective in that aphids primarily prefer wild plants as hosts.
Cultivate specific pollen plants
Ladybirds are primarily carnivores, but they also feed on pollen. By planting certain flowering plants in your garden whose pollen ladybugs like, you can increase their population in the long term. The good thing about this method is that you encourage ladybugs even in years when there are few aphids. Ladybugs primarily rely on plant-based food when other animal food becomes scarce.
Plants that ladybugs like to fly to are mainly some herbs and tuber vegetables, which you also have in your kitchen. For example:
- Chives
- Dill
- Caraway
- Mint
- Chamomile
- Coriander
- Fennel
- garlic
Ladybirds also like the following flowers, which also beautify your beds:
- Marigolds
- Sea Lilac
- Poppies
- Yarrow
- Dandelion (Of course, this has to be weighed up - after all, dandelions are a thorn in the side of some garden owners or in the lawn. However, they are also useful as a he althy wild lettuce plant!)
Create shelter
As with attracting beneficial and biodiversity-promoting birds, it is advisable to welcome ladybugs with appropriate shelter. Autumnal piles of leaves, dense bushes, insect hotels and unplastered natural stone walls, rafters and cracks in house walls offer the beetles good quarters for overwintering. With a bit of luck, the beetles will retreat to such places during the cold season and produce new generations directly in your garden the following year.
