(Photos: top 3 Insect hotels; bottom 3 insect restaurants)
Insect Restaurants and Hotels
All gardens have both helpful and harmful insects. The harmful insects (e.g. Colorado potato beetle, cucumber beetle) leave the weeds alone and eat the plants that we want to eat, and the helpful (e.g. the many species of bees) pollinate our plants so they can produce fruit and seeds. However, some helpful bugs (e.g. wasps & lady bugs) also eat the harmful bugs, their larvae, and their eggs! The challenge is to attract and keep the helpful insects, both pollinators and predators, around our vegetable and herb gardens.
Many of these insects might never be seen, but they are present all the same – if there is enough food and sufficient lodgings. Like hornets or yellow jackets which find a good source of food and then move into the neighbourhood and set up house, many insects do the same.
To attract the helpful, consider first a restaurant to draw them in and get them to appreciate the neighbourhood. Flowers provide protein (pollen) and carbohydrates (nectar) for the insects. Unfortunately, vegetables do not flower soon enough or often enough to attract and keep bugs in the neighbourhood. As gardeners, we want to provide a bug buffet that is worth returning to often, not just a service center food stop for transient bugs.
Diversity is essential
Flowers planted near our vegetables, can enlarge the menu and the seating – plenty for all insects; no waiting! These flowers should be a variety of early, mid-summer, and late blooming plants to keep the restaurant open from spring to fall. Remember the flowers are attracting not only the pollinators but also the assassins (e.g. robber flies, damsel bugs, soldier beetles) that work for us against the harmful insects, larvae, and eggs.
The shape of the flower is also a consideration, from the pincushion (e.g. echinacea, rudbeckia, daisy), to the trumpet (e.g. lilies, gladiolas, lavatera), the multi-flower head (e.g. Lantana, dill, yarrow) and the tubular (e.g. snapdragons, foxglove, crocosmia). Shapes can affect which insects stop to dine and the colours yellow (many vegetable flowers are yellow) and white (night time pollinators) are popular with bugs.
If you are just starting to add flowers, start slowly. Every little bit helps. Flowers in-ground or in pots can add to the attractiveness of your garden and enlarge the buffet. Some flowers are edible (e.g. nasturtium, borage – a bee favourite) and may serve you in more ways than one.
The second step is to provide attractive accommodation. The simplest method is to leave the cut stalks in the ground until spring and pull the remaining stalk and roots when you intend to plant. Many insects overwinter in the hollow stalks, while the stalk and roots help fight erosion.
While waiting for spring, consider constructing a bug hotel. The following pictures will help with the design. The “hotel rooms” need to be varied in size and composition (straw, bamboo, sticks, bricks, stones, bark, rags). Also, insect hotels serve year-round, so some shelter from the elements will prolong the life of the hotel. Once again diversity is the rule for organic gardeners!
(Photos: Insect hotel Edmunston, NB; Insect hotel Montreal Botanical gardens)
Insects can be a challenge to live with, but we cannot live without them! Insect restaurants and hotels are two steps in the direction of organic pest control. Living with nature is far better than fighting against nature. For the organic gardener, nature is an ally!
Happy Strategic Gardening!
