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Let them eat aphids (Filed: 27/06/2001)

Rather than launch a chemical blitzkrieg, why not use natural predators to control pests, says Charlie Ryrie

EVERY time you turn round in the garden at this time of year, something else happens: a new flower opens; another leaf unfurls; a seedling pokes above the ground. And in addition, pests are gearing up for a good feast. Slugs and snails are out in force, insects are taking the air, the detested aphids have appeared on young leaves and grubs are uncurling in the soil.

The good news is that your garden needs these pests, because they, in turn, nourish crowds of helpful creatures. It's all a question of balance. And you can tip it in your favour by choosing plants that attract pest predators and by cultivating a tolerant attitude to minor pest damage rather than launching into a chemical blitzkrieg.

You may have to resign yourself to a few losses, but this laid-back approach is, ultimately, remarkably stress-free - as well as being ecologically desirable.

Garden-friendly insects

Lacewings are delicate insects with translucent pale-green wings; greenfly are their favourite food. Hoverflies are like miniature darting wasps, while parasitic wasps are skinny and narrow-waisted members of their family. They lay their eggs in soft-bodied insects, mainly caterpillars, and the grubs feed on their hosts, killing them in the process.

You may never spot some of the most efficient natural pest controllers: tiny larvae that prey on soft-bodied insects, mites and insect eggs. Lacewing larvae look like miniature greenish-grey alligators and not only dispose of aphids but also attack caterpillars and insect larvae, piercing their prey and sucking out their juices. One larva can get through more than 100 aphids in an hour.

Brownish-green hoverfly larvae do severe damage to aphid colonies, and tiny greyish ladybird larvae are also voracious - and then the adults continue the killing . . .

Plants for the good guys

Every garden needs a variety of flowering plants because regular visits from bees and other pollinators will help it to thrive.

Nettles: if you can bear to, leave a patch of stinging nettles somewhere in the garden. It will attract a species of greenfly that provides food for early ladybird and hoverfly larvae. These then move on to feast on other insect pests.

Early flowers for food: aphids tend to stick to one type of plant, but their predators are not so fussy. To kickstart pest control, make sure you have some early flowering scented plants, such as wallflowers, to attract early pollinators.

Herbs: all helpful insects like aromatic herbs, so plant borage, hyssop, sages, lavender and mint in pots. A few lavender plants among your roses can make all the difference, and a hyssop hedge makes an attractive edging to vegetables or flowers. It will also deter cabbage butterflies.

In the border: tall (3ft-4ft), slightly scruffy, red-flowered buckwheat Fagopyron esculentum is irresistible to hoverflies and sits well at the back of a border, perhaps with the equally effective blue-flowered Phacelia tanacetiifolia.

The non-invasive Convolvulus tricolor Prince's feather and other amaranths are a magnet for ladybirds, shield bugs (which gorge on mites), parasitic wasps and even slug-hungry ground-beetles. They look dramatic in a border or in a block in the vegetable garden.

Containers of plants work just as well as those planted in the ground, and any garden has room for a few tubs of clipped euonymus or some lavender balls.

Parsley and other umbellifers These attract lacewings, so include fennel, dill or angelica in your borders, or plant sweet cicely and cow parsley in shadier areas.

Parasitic wasps and hoverflies are also drawn to flowering heads of dill and fennel, and you could further encourage them by letting some parsley plants go to seed.

Annuals: some of the most cheerful annuals are as popular with friendly insects as they are with gardeners. The yellow and white flowers of the poached egg plant, Limnanthes douglasii, buzz with insects all day long, so sow it under herbaceous plants, shrubs and soft fruit. Both baby blue eyes, Nemophila menziesii, and candytuft, Iberis umbellata, are hoverfly favourites.

Feed the birds

Birds are sometimes seen as garden pests, but if you net fruit and cover seedlings, they become welcome visitors. Robins adore caterpillars and grubs, especially cutworms; starlings help to control gypsy moth and wireworm populations; tits and finches devour bud-frequenting insects; woodpeckers search out cranefly larvae; and thrushes adore snails.

A bird-friendly garden needs to provide shelter, water and food over a long season. Blackberry bushes are wildlife sanctuaries, the middle of the bushes providing a dry place for birds to nest or slug-eating hedgehogs to hibernate. Their late flowers feed insects when food is getting short, and the fruit then feeds birds until winter. Shrubs such as pyracantha are useful for winter cover as well as berries, and Viburnum bodnantense 'Dawn' is good for its flowers.

Pond life

Any garden can have a pond. Toads, frogs and dragonflies are helpful predators and the way they appear from nowhere is amazing. I dug a pond last year and this spring it was heaving with frogs, which will help keep slugs down if they mature.

Surround the pond with plants such as Alchemilla mollis and hostas that give cool, moist shade for ground beetles and slow worms, the other great slug predators.

Site specifics

www.hdra.org.uk

www.wildflower.org.uk

www.pestmanagement.co.uk

-- Anonymous, June 28, 2001

Answers

this is a keeper, I love most of they "pests" all except the ones that SQUIGGLE!!!!!!!

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2001

"aphids tend to stick to one type of plant"

Yes. Eventually I resort to not growing those plants.

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2001

SAR, the snakes are much more afraid of you than you are of them!

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2001

Hot links, anyone? LOL

hdra

wildflower

pest management

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2001