Beneficial insects

Beneficial insects are a quirky and unusual bunch of crew, but that makes them all the more interesting. Honestly, get a magnifying glass – you’ll be hooked.

Parasitic wasps, hoverflies, various bees and ladybirds, praying mantis, daddy long legs, spiders, dragonflies, damsel flies, assassin bugs, lacewings, ground beetles, soldier beetles, frogs, birds and earwigs (yes, earwigs!) do a ton of pest management.

Get to know your beneficial population with a New Zealand-focused book or an online tool such as What Is This Bug on the Landcare Research website (landcareresearch.co.nz) and entice them to live in your garden. They have simple needs – a year-round supply of food, a spray-free backyard, and somewhere quiet and undisturbed to live.

Plant perennials and natives for insect habitat.

Leave larger prunings and logs tucked under trees or shrubs to house bumblebees, wood-loving arthropods and beneficial fungi.

Rocks further diversify the habitat. Leave some in the sun for skinks.

Water is a boon. In small gardens, a birdbath or pottery bowl will up the ante. If you can create a pond, even a small one, go for it.

Beneficial insects feed on nectar and pollen as well as pests. Nectar eaters and pollen gatherers have tiny mouths suited to open flowers - daisies are a good example, or flowers made up of lots of little flowers, like alyssum or lavender. Modern varieties are often lacking in nectar and pollen, so choose heirloom or wild plants and natives.

Watch where the beneficials feed and as flowering finishes, notice where they move next. Plants that gain attention are the ones to grow a lot of. Steadily build your fodder supply by filling seasonal gaps as you go.

Create simple no-dig gardens with piles of mulch and jam them full of companion plants. Make use of the places that aren’t suited to food growing.

Plant flowering perennials around the outside edge of the vegetable garden and beneath fruit trees.

Grow annual flowers throughout the vege patch to keep the beneficials close by.