Attracting Wildlife: Predators 

Blog #13E Attracting Wildlife: Predators 

Blog Description: How to attract predators to your garden, and why you would want to.

Hi there! Ever heard of organic pest management? It’s the genius concept that the way to keep pests down in your garden, without the use of chemicals, is to bring the ecosystem back into balance.

Organic pest management focuses on the prevention of pest problems. It requires continuous attention to the health of your soil, first and foremost. Learn more about soil health in my post here. 

Once you’ve got a handle on your soil health, you can encourage biodiversity by rotating your crops seasonally, amp up your habitat for beneficial organisms, and create an inhospitable environment for pests. 

Yet the pests will still come time and again. All of these preventative measures will absolutely minimize these unwanted guests, but the ultimate solution is to invite some friendly predators in to patrol the situation. 

This is the final installment in our Attracting Wildlife mini series, but by no means the least important. In fact, if you integrate what you’ve learned from the previous 4 Attracting Wildlife posts together with what you’ll learn here and apply it to your garden you’ll have a synergistic oasis in no time! 

These diversified approaches to attracting wildlife will help nurture your garden’s ecosystem back into balance.

So, who are these predators anyways? And what do they prey on? 

Beneficial Predators

• Bats
• Bees
• Butterflies
  • Cloudless Sulphur
  • Giant Swallowtail
  • Monarch
• Dragonflies
• Earwigs
• Flies
  • Syrphid
  • Tachnid
• Lady Beetles
• Lacewings
• Ladybugs
• Owls
• Praying Mantids
• Spiders
  • Golden Silk
  • Green Lynx
  • Jumping
• Stink Bug
• Wasps

Plants and Habitats to Attract Predators

• Install an owl or bat box, or both! Find an area of your yard less frequented by humans and install them high up in a protected spot.
• Hedgerows
• Mulch
• Piles of logs or rocks
• Trees and perches
• Pollinator plants
  • Some insects such as lacewings are only predatory as larvae, so keep that in mind when choosing plants.
    • They love
      • Cilantro
      • Dill
      • Cosmos
      • Lemon Verbena
      • Oregano
    • They prey on
      • Aphids
      • Spider mites
      • White flies

Invite In Predators for a More Balanced Ecosystem

Every plant and animal that exists here and now is on this planet for a reason. They have fought for their survival against all odds, they are the survivors. 

An overpopulation of pests or weeds signifies an imbalance in the immediate ecosystem. The microcosm of your garden can be seen as its own mini ecosystem, and you can treat it as such!

So, when you find yourself with an aphid infestation, think to yourself, what might bring this garden bed back into balance? Lacewings! Ladybugs!

If you are facing an infestation and need immediate damage control, you can most likely find beneficial insects or larvae to buy and set free, either locally or surely on the internet. This is the short term solution to bringing balance back instead of creating a bigger problem by using chemical treatments. 

Chemical treatments will further damage the ecosystem by leveling the playing field and allowing ALL the pests back in eventually. This is exactly where it is possible to get caught in a cycle of spraying chemicals – all the pests are gone, wonderful! Then they all reappear but the system is still out of balance, there are no beneficial predators, so the pest population explodes.  You are tempted to spray again because it “worked” last time, right? The cycle continues. 

I’m here to say, break the cycle!

The long term solution is to nurture an environment that allows for these beneficial predators. At the end of the day, the name of the South Florida gardening game is to go native. 

As you nurse your yard back to health, think about what the land looked like many moons ago in its natural state. Native plants, piles of brush perhaps, a snag here and there, a source of water, layers of varied vegetation for shelter. 

And remember, you can go back to nature and keep it looking spiffy, too. A neat brush pile at the back of the yard, a well hidden snag surrounded by flowering pollinator plants, a soft ground cover instead of grass, well mulched garden beds. You see where I’m going with this, right? 

Going natural does not mean sacrificing beauty in the garden, in fact, I’m the first one to say they go hand in hand!

So go ahead, tell us all about how you are designing natural beauty in your garden. Leave me a note or a question, you know I’ll get back to you! 

I hope you have enjoyed reading this mini series on Attracting Wildlife just as much as I’ve enjoyed sharing it with you. What a wonderful reminder that the birds, the bees, and even the bats, owls, and wasps, are gardening right beside you! And they thank you for letting them in.

Until next time,

Happy gardening!

Mary