Throwing bugs at your bug woes
DAVID MINK GateHouse Plus

It sounds crazy, I know. You've got a bug problem in your garden, and the last thing you want is to acerbate the situation with more bugs. It's like throwing money at a financial problem; it just doesn't make sense.

Well, as they say, sometimes you have to fight fire with fire.

Every creature in our ecosystem (save the top-of-thefood chain ones, like humans, tigers and sharks) has a natural predator. These predators sometimes feed exclusively on their preferred prey, thereby preventing those prey from feeding on their preferred source of nutrition. For example, in an indirect way hawks "protect" garden crops by feeding on the rabbits that plague them.

While trying to lure a community of hawks to set up shop around your yard is a little unreasonable, you can lure certain types of predatorial insects to your garden to tamp down an insect infestation.

The first step in this process is determining what type of infestation you have. If you cannot readily identify the insects, contact your local extension agency. They should have an insect identification program through which you can submit specimens.

Once you've identified your infestation, now you want to determine what type of predatorial insect would serve as the best hitman for your garden. An aphid infestation can be routed quickly by a swarm of aphidoletes, whereas slugs and grubs can be best combated with ground beetles and spring tiphia wasps, respectively. GrinningPlanet.com has a fuller list of specific prey and their predators.

Now you're going to need to attract the predators by building an insectary. An insectary is simply a small plot of plants that help attract certain predators to your garden. These predators will be attracted by both the plants and the presence of their natural prey. Don't plant your insectary as a precautionary method, because predators will quickly move on if no food supply is present.

Using our previous examples, we can easily attract some aphidoletes by planting lupin. Ground beetles are attracted to amaranthus, as well, while spring tiphia wasps can't stay away from peonies, firethorn or forsythia. Once again, a more complete list can be found at GrinningPlanet.com.

Sometimes there's simply no other choice. If its war these pests want, well, you're just the folks to bring it to them. Just remember: the most important thing anyone can have during a time of war is an ally.