Is Your Garden a Bug Magnet?
Wednesday November 12, 2008
Scent is such a sneaky sense. One minute I’m not the least bit hungry and the next I’m getting a whiff of something so tempting I can’t resist a pit stop at the bakery. I know this and I should know enough to avoid walking by bakeries, but I don’t. Does this apply to insects too? Do caterpillars and beetles find a particular plant so enticing they just can’t pass it up? About’s Guide to Insects, Debbie Hadley, tackles the question of How Plant-Eating Insects Find the Right Food - a first step in how to prevent it in your garden.
Photo: © Marie Iannotti (2008) licensed to About.com, Inc.
Comments
Prevent it? How typically misguided. You need to read Douglas Tallamy’s “Bringing Nature Home” Insects need to eat too- they are part of the web of life helping to provide food for birds and other organisms and pollinating the plants that provide our food.
As much as I enjoy being labeled “typically misguided”, at no point did Debbie or I promote the idea of eliminating all the insects in our gardens. However a major tenant of IPM is knowing which insects are being destructive in your garden and why you are attracting so many of them.
I agree that insects are a vital part of our ecosystem, but please don’t be so quick to judge people who are trying to find a balanced way of coexisting. Let’s not forget that many garden insect problems are man-made and, left unchecked, there could be very little garden left for the other insects to enjoy.