Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden, Revised and Updated Second Edition: A Natural Approach to Pest Control

by Jessica Walliser

Overview

This revised and updated edition of Jessica Walliser’s award-winning Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden offers a valuable and science-backed plan for bringing balance back to the garden.

With this indispensable gardening reference—now updated with new research, insights, and voices—learn how to create a healthy, balanced, and diverse garden capable of supporting a hard-working crew of beneficial pest-eating insects and eliminate the need for synthetic chemical pesticides.

After a fascinating introduction to the predator and prey cycle and its importance to both wild ecosystems and home gardens, you’ll meet dozens of pest-munching beneficial insects (the predators) that feast on garden pests (their prey). From ladybugs and lacewings to parasitic wasps and syrphid flies, these good guys of the bug world keep the natural system of checks and balances in prime working order. They help limit pest damage and also serve a valuable role in the garden's food web. But, they won't call your garden home if you don't have the resources they need to survive.

With a hearty population of beneficial insects present in your garden, you’ll say goodbye to common garden pests like aphids, cabbage worms, bean beetles, leafhoppers, and hornworms, without reaching for a spray can. To encourage these good guys to stick around and do their important work, you'll learn how to create a welcoming habitat and fill your garden with the best plants to support them. 

Inside you’ll find:

• Bug profiles introducing dozens of beneficial insects and the down-and-dirty details on how they catch and eat their prey
• Plant profiles featuring the best plants for supporting beneficials
• Interviews with entomologists who focus their life's work on understanding the value of insects, including Doug Tallamy, Paula Shrewsbury, Leslie Allee, Dan Herms, and others
• An inspiring look at how plants and insects intersect in the most incredible ways
• Why gardening for bugs is just as important to the greater world as it is to your garden
• Tips for creating insectary plantings and borders to support a broad range of beneficials

The acclaimed first edition of Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden ushered in a new way to garden; one that appreciates and understands of the power of returning a natural balance to the garden. This revised and updated edition continues to herald and expands on that same important message.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780760371718
Publisher:	Cool Springs Press
Publication date:	02/01/2022
Edition description:	2nd ed.
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	193,870
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Jessica Walliser is a horticulturist and the award-winning author of seven gardening books. In addition, she is co-founder of the popular website SavvyGardening.com. Jessica is a two-time winner of the prestigious American Horticultural Society Book Award for her books Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden: A Natural Approach to Pest Control and Plant Partners: Science-based Companion Planting Strategies for the Vegetable Garden. For 15 years, Jessica contributed two weekly columns to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review where she had the pleasure of covering a wide range of gardening topics. Jessica was also the long-time co-host of The Organic Gardeners, an award-winning program on KDKA Radio in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She has a degree in horticulture from the Pennsylvania State University and is the former owner of a 25-acre organic market farm. 

Table of Contents

Introduction

How a Horticulturist Came to Bugs 4

All About Beneficials

Who They Are, How They Work, and What They Eat 8

Beneficial Bug Profiles

Meet the Predators and the Parasitoids 36

Gardening for Bugs

Where Plants and Insects Intersect 84

Plant Profiles

The Best Plants for Beneficials 108

Your Beneficial Border

A Guide to Designing for the Bugs 158

Companion Planting

Battling Pests with Plant Partnerships 174

Putting It All Together

Who the Beneficials Eat and What to Plant 186

The Commercial Stuff

Purchased Beneficials, Good Bug Lures, Supplemental Foods, and Seed Blends 190

Acknowledgments 201

About the Author 202

Resources 203

Index 204

Editorial Reviews

Praise for the first edition of Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden:

“Jessica Walliser lets readers in on the secrets to a garden that buzzes with activity. Her profiles, on the insects that fight pests and the best plants for attracting them, offer clear, practical tips.” —Martha Stewart Living

“An aid for teachers as well as gardeners, who want to know more about the insects in their world.” —The Indianapolis Star
 
“With [Jessica Walliser’s] help, you can learn how to control pests through your gardening practices rather than your choice of insecticide.” —Gardening How-To
 
“A detailed, wholistic, and wonderfully illustrated guide to the lifestyles of all the insects that inhabit the organic garden as well as creating the conditions needed to encourage those you want in the fight against those you don’t.” —Planet Natural
 
“A delight! Easy to read and entertaining, yet packed with information not only on the beneficial insects themselves, but on the plants that can attract and support them, and on how to incorporate them into your garden. Highly recommended!” —It’s Not Work, It’s Gardening
 
“Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden by Jessica Walliser, is a fresh look at an unavoidable part of the gardening experience.... a must-have tool for new and experienced gardeners alike.” —Free Press

“Learn to identify good bugs and bad bugs…and what to plant to lure the cavalry.” —Newsday

"In this new version, Walliser offers even more science-based advice to gardeners. I recommend reading (her) updated work to get off to a running start."—Horticulture

"...offers a sciencebacked plan for bringing balance back to the garden. Filled with new research, insights, and voices, the book will help you create a healthy and diverse garden capable of supporting beneficial, pest-eating insects and eliminate the need for synthetic chemical pesticides."—Michigan Gardener

From the Publisher