Make your garden into a carnival for beneficial bug friends!

Growing a variety of different plants can attract various types of beneficial insects to your garden. Getting these helpful "friends" to come to your garden can keep your blossoms pollinated, reduce populations of pest insects and increase the overall health of your garden ecosystem.

Here are the names of a few beneficial insects who enjoy dining on garden pests:

Ladybugs
Lacewings
Tachinid Flies
Hoverflies
Parasitic Miniwasps
Minute pirate-bugs
Damsel Bugs
Big-eyed bugs

To learn more about these benevolent party-guests, and what they like to eat for dinner- visit http://www.farmerfred.com/plants_that_attract_benefi.html which happens to be where i got most of the info for this post- Thanks Farmer Fred! : )

Here is a list of plants that will make your garden a hit with the insects described above. After each plant, I listed the zones they'll be most comfortable in. This is a general guideline- many plants can tolerate more or less cold or heat, depending on the variety, so the rules aren't set in stone. If you're like me, and live in zone 10, but want a zone 9 plant in your garden, try planting it(maybe not in direct sun) and see what happens. Some plants can tolerate climates a bit beyond their suggested zones. For best results, find out the plant's sun, soil and water requirements and plant them in an area that suits them.

Alfalfa 3-11

Alpine Cinquefoil 3-5 (only one not recommended for the florida area)

Angelica 4-9

Basket of Gold 3-10

Buckwheat (good cover-crop also) zone 7-10

Butter and Eggs 4-9

Butterfly weed 3-9

Caraway 3-9

Carpet Bugleweed(ajuga)3-10 depending on variety

Common Yarrow 3-8 some cultivars can go to 10

Coriander 1-10

Cosmos white sensation 3-10

Crimson Thyme 5-10

Dill 8-14

Dwarf alpine aster 2-9

Edging lobelia 3-11

English lavender 5-9

Fennel 4-10

Fern leaf yarrow 3-10

Feverfew 4-9

Four-wing saltbush 6a-10b

Gloriosa Daisy 5a-9b

Golden Marguerite 4a-9b

Hairy Vetch 4-10?

Lavendar-Globe lilly 3a-9b

Lemon balm 4-9

Marigold- 1-11, depending on variety

Masterwort 5-10 depending on variety

Orange stonecrop 4-10b

Parsley 1-9

Pennyroyal 5-9

Peter pan goldenrod 3-9

Phacelia 3-10

Poached egg plant 5-10

Prairie Sunflower 4-10

Purple poppy mallow 3-9

Queen Anne’s lace 4-9

Rocky Mountain Penstemon 3-9

Spearmint 4-9

Spike speedwell 3-8

Statice all zones in U.S.

Stonecrops 3-11, depending on variety.

Sulfur cinquefoil 3-9

Sweet alyssum 3-11

Tansy 3-9

Wild bergamot 3-9

Wood Betony 4-9

Zinnia Liliput all zones, depending on variety.

And finally, here is a list that gives the specific bugs each of the above plants are known to attract:

Alfalfa (minute pirate bugs, damsel bugs, big-eyed bugs)

Alpine Cinquefoil (ladybugs, hoverflies, parasitic mini-wasps)

Angelica (lacewings)

Basket of Gold (ladybugs, hoverflies,)

Buckwheat (ladybugs, hoverflies, tachinid flies)

Butter and Eggs (hoverflies, parasitic miniwasps)

Butterfly weed (ladybugs)

Caraway (lacewings, hoverflies, parasitic miniwasps, minute pirate bugs, damsel bugs, big-eyed bugs)

Carpet Bugleweed(ajuga) (ladybugs, hoverflies)

Common Yarrow (ladybugs, hoverflies, parasitic miniwasps)

Coriander (lacewings, ladybugs, hoverflies, parasitic miniwasps)

Cosmos white sensation (lacewings, hoverflies, parasitic miniwasps, minute pirate bugs, damsel bugs, big-eyed bugs)

Crimson Thyme (hoverflies, parasitic miniwasps, tachinid flies)

Dill (lacewings, ladybugs, parasitic miniwasps)

Dandelion (Lacewings, ladybugs)

Dwarf alpine aster (hoverflies)

Edging lobelia (hoverflies, parasitic miniwasps)

English lavender (hoverflies)

Fennel (lacewings, ladybugs, minute pirate bugs, damsel bugs, big-eyed bugs)

Fern leaf yarrow (lacewings, ladybugs, hoverflies, parasitic mini-wasps)

Feverfew (hoverflies)

Four-wing saltbush (lacewings, ladybugs, hoverflies)

Gloriosa Daisy (hoverflies)

Golden Marguerite (lacewings, ladybugs, parasitic miniwasps, tachinid flies)

Hairy Vetch (ladybugs)

Lavendar-Globe lilly (hoverflies, parasitic mini-wasps)

Lemon balm (hoverflies, parasitic mini-wasps, tachinid flies)

Marigold- lemon gem (ladybugs, hoverflies, parasitic mini-wasps, minute pirate bugs, damsel bugs, big-eyed bugs)

Masterwort (hoverflies, parasitic mini-wasps)

Orange stonecrop (hoverflies, parasitic mini-wasps)

Parsley (hoverflies, parasitic mini-wasps, tachinid flies)

Pennyroyal (hoverflies, parasitic mini-wasps, tachinid flies)

Peter pan goldenrod (hoverflies, minute pirate bugs, damsel bugs, big-eyed bugs)

Phacelia (tachinid flies)

Poached egg plant (hoverflies)

Prairie Sunflower (lacewings, ladybugs)

Purple poppy mallow (lacewings, hoverflies, parasitic mini-wasps)

Queen Anne’s lace (lacewings, ladybugs, hoverflies, parasitic mini-wasps)

Rocky Mountain Penstemon (ladybugs, hoverflies)

Spearmint (hoverflies, minute pirate bugs, damsel bugs, big-eyed bugs)

Spike speedwell (ladybugs, hoverflies)

Statice (hoverflies, parasitic mini-wasps)

Stonecrops (hoverflies, parasitic mini-wasps)

Sulfur cinquefoil (ladybugs, hoverflies, parasitic mini-wasps)

Sweet alyssum (hoverflies, parasitic mini-wasps)

Tansy (lacewings, ladybugs, parasitic mini-wasps, tachinid flies)

Wild bergamot (hoverflies)

Wood Betony (hoverflies)

Zinnia Liliput (hoverflies and parasitic mini-wasps)