Make your landscaping butterfly-friendly

Attract beautiful and beneficial butterflies to your yard and garden!

by Networx.com

 

There is something magical about butterflies as they flit from flower to flower in the garden. These winged beauties are not only stunning to watch but they also serve an important role as pollinators, spreading pollen from flower to flower,  leading  to fertilization and ultimately seed production. The activities of butterflies and other pollinators, like hummingbirds and bees, help to ensure that various plant species multiply and persist. 

 

By growing certain combinations of plants and providing the right setting, you can attract butterflies and other welcome pollinators to your garden. Here are some tips for attracting butterflies.

 

1.   Certain butterflies will only lay their eggs on specific plants. Find out what types of butterflies are in your area. This can be done through observation or by utilizing field guides.

 

2.   You will need to plant both host and nectar plants. Host plants provide larval food for caterpillars and a place for them to lay their eggs. Once the caterpillars become butterflies, nectar plants are an important food source. If you grow herbs for cooking, plant a few extra for the butterflies. 

 

3.   Situate your butterfly garden in a location that receives 4-6 hours of direct sun. 

 

4.   Provide a source of shallow water (puddles are great), warm flat rocks for butterflies to sun on and some protection from strong winds. Shrubs are a good way to provide the necessary shelter. 

 

5.   Avoid using chemical pesticides which  kill both bad and good bugs, including caterpillars. 

 

6.   Select a range of plants so that you will have blooms from spring until fall. This will maximize the opportunity to attract butterflies. 

 

Below is a partial list of both host and nectar plants to attract and feed butterflies. Be sure to check with your local native plant society to find out the best natives for attracting butterflies.

 

Herbs

Fennel – Both the green and bronze are hosts for Black Swallowtails.

Parsley – A host for Black Swallowtails.

Basil – Provides nectar.

Dill – Is both a host plant and a source of nectar.

 

Annuals

Cosmos – A nectar source for the Painted Lady.

Hollyhock – A nectar source for the American Painted Lady.

Pansies – A nectar source for the Yellow Sulfur.

Salvia species – A host plant for many different butterflies.

Sunflowers – A larval source for the Painted Lady.

Verbena species – A nectar source for the Checkered Skipper.

Zinnia species – A nectar source for the Western Tiger Swallowtail.

 

Perennials

Asclepias species – Butterfly weed is both a host plant and a source of nectar for Monarchs.

Aster species – A nectar source for Black Swallowtails.

Echinacea species and cultivars – Coneflower is a nectar source for the Common Wood Nymph.

Eupatorium purpureum – Joepye weed is a nectar source for Giant Swallowtails.

 

Shrubs and Trees

Asimina triloba – Pawpaw is a host for the Zebra Swallowtail.

Buddleia davidii – The butterfly bush is a nectar source for the Black Swallowtail and Monarchs.

Fraxinus pennsylvanica – The green ash is a larval source for two types of Swallowtails.

Lindera benzoin – The spicebush is a host for Spicebush Swallowtails.

Populus tremuloides – Quaking aspen is a host for Mourning Cloaks.

Prunus serotina – Black cherry is a host for the Tiger Swallowtail.

Salix species – Willow is a host for the Red Spotted Purple.

Prunus virginiana – Chokecherry is a host for the Western Tiger Swallowtail. 

http://www.mnn.com/your-home/organic-farming-gardening 

Beneficial insects: How to attract good bugs to your garden

Suggestions include choosing a diverse variety of plants and letting some vegetables go to seed.

by Tom Oder

 

Small yarrow flowers can attract tiny parasitoid wasps, which feed on harmful aphids, caterpillars and beetle larvae.  (Photo: nayukim/Flickr) 

Not all bugs are bad, and knowing which is friend and which is foe may be more important than ever to gardeners this year.

 

That’s because entomologists are anticipating an increased number of insects this spring and summer due to what the National Weather Service says is the fourth mildest winter on record.

 

“A proportion of overwintering larvae, pupae, eggs, etc., get knocked back in winter, and the more severe the winter the greater the proportion that does not make it through,” said Jim Costa, director of the Highlands (North Carolina) Biological Station and professor of biology at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. “I figure that we'll have a good spring emergence of insects as a result — the good, the bad, and the ugly.”

 

Which are good, which are bad?

While all insects might be ugly to many homeowners, knowing which are good and which are bad and attracting the good guys to eat the bad guys can be critical first steps to gardeners trying to grow that prize-winning rose or unblemished tomato.

 

Allison Mia Starcher, a garden illustrator and author, taught herself the difference when she was drawing illustrations of beneficial insects for the Southern California Gardener newsletter. She shared what she learned in an easy-to-understand book she wrote and illustrated, “Good Bugs for Your Garden” (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1995).

 

Speaking recently during a drizzling rain in the garden at the Santa Monica, Calif., house that used to belong to her maternal grandparents and where she now lives, Starcher said there are two ways for backyard gardeners to tell good bugs from bad ones: observation and Internet searches.

 

Pausing for a moment to marvel at parasitic wasps drawn to the pollen on flowers of mustard greens, Starcher said gardeners should “watch the bugs on their plants and see what they are doing.” This is a process she calls micro-level gardening and one from which she says she gets a satisfaction that cannot be overstated.

 

Eating or defending

To help distinguish between harmful and beneficial insects, Starcher said, gardeners should ask themselves which bugs are eating their garden and which ones are defending it.”  Think, too, she urged, about what kind of damage is being done. Are holes being chewed in leaves?  And when is the damage happening – for example, are the insects active at night?

 

If you see the bug, Starcher says to take a photo of it and write a short description. As an example, she suggested something as simple as “shield-shaped with red markings.

 

Armed with a photo, a description of the bug and its activity, Starcher said Web searches will often lead to bug ID sites. “I’m a real believer in asking questions and doing an Internet search,” she added.

 

“You can even do this on Facebook,” she pointed out. Perhaps your gardening friends can ID a bug or forward the information to someone who can.

 

More ways to ID

Other ways to ID bugs are to email a photo and description of characteristics to your local cooperative extension service. Better yet, Starcher advises, capture the critter and take it in a sealed baggie to a garden center. Once there, ask the staff for help in determining whether it’s beneficial or harmful.

 

The goal, she said, is to figure out which ones are the good ones … and don’t kill them.

 

To attract good bugs to the garden, Starcher and Costa offered several suggestions:

 

• Make your garden as diverse as possible. The different nectars and pollen will attract a variety of insects. A byproduct of a richness of diverse plants and insects is that they in turn will create a healthy backyard ecosystem that will benefit birds, small mammals, reptiles and amphibians.
• Use specific plants to attract specific insects. To attract zebra swallowtail butterflies, for example, plant paw paw trees, the only host plant for this species of butterfly.
• Leave an occasional, dreaded weed undisturbed. Weeds add to the diversity of plants and thus increase the variety of insects in the garden.
• Let vegetables, greens and herbs go to seed when possible. This is easy to do by peeling leaves from stems of plants such as arugula, basil and chard and leaving the stem to continue to grow and flower, attracting insects when it does.
• Include plants whose flowers have an umbrella shape. Umbrella-shaped flowers have clusters of very small flowers and are accessible to tiny parasitoid wasps, which feed on harmful aphids, caterpillars and beetle larvae. The yarrow flower is an example.
• Go native in the ornamental garden. Native plants are especially proficient at attracting pollinators and blooming when the pollinators are active.
• Plant in vertical layers. Place plants such as alyssum and catmint under roses to attract beneficial insects such as ladybugs and lacewings. These beneficial insects consume pollen in their adult incarnations while their larvae eat pest insects. They are also efficient pollinators.
• Don’t fret about ants (except fire ants). They add to the mutualism of ecosystems, harvesting and dispersing seed and extending the life of plant populations.
• Rejoice in earthworms. While not an insect, they aerate and enhance soil.

 

If you can’t put enough good guys into your garden to combat the bad guys, there are organic pesticides as well as a variety of insecticidal soaps on the market that are safe for people and pets.

 

You can also engage in what Starcher calls hand-to-hand combat, squishing bugs with your fingers. “While we were talking,” she said during our call, “I squished a caterpillar Beet Armyworm” on a beet seedling.

 

Of course, there’s also an ecological advantage to leaving caterpillars and other “bad bugs” that chew on plants to meet another fate. “Basically, from a migratory bird point of view, the spring emergence of caterpillars and sawflies alone is like manna from heaven – nestling birds desperately need all those caterpillars to feed their hungry young,” Costa pointed out.

 

Whether through careful attention to creating a micro-garden haven for beneficial insects or through the Darwinian approach of natural selection, gardeners can rest easy knowing there’s a way to help the good bugs win and send the bad ones packing.

 

What attracts good bugs

Starcher, the author of “Good Bugs for Your Garden” prefers to use flowering herbs and wildflowers to attract insects to gardens because she believes that hybrid bedding plants have lost some of the characteristics that attract bugs. Those characteristics are nectar and pollen. Here are some of the herbs, vegetables and flowers she suggests will attract a wide variety of insects:

 

• Baby’s breath
• Carrots
• Dill
• Feverfew
• Goldenrod
• Lavender
• Lemon balm
• Marigolds
• Mustard
• Nasturtiums
• Parsley
• Queen Anne’s lace
• Rose-scented geraniums
• Spearmint
• Sunflowers
• Sweet alyssum
• Thyme

 

Got other tips for attracting beneficial insects to the garden? Leave us a note in the comments below.

http://www.mnn.com/your-home/organic-farming-gardening/stories/beneficial-insects-how-to-attract-good-bugs

Honey’s golden touch: Study finds liquid kills 85 per cent of bacteria found in hard-to-treat wounds Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2094694/Honey-s-golden-touch-Study-finds-liquid-kills-85-cent-bacteria-hard-treat-wounds.html#ixzz1lLYP3AoA

Honey’s golden touch: Study finds liquid kills 85 per cent of bacteria found in hard-to-treat wounds
By FIONA MACRAE
Last updated at 1:47 AM on 1st February 2012
Comments (32)
Share


Manuka honey has been found to ease hard-to-treat wounds in a new study
Honey could have the golden touch when it comes to keeping bugs at bay.
In tests, manuka honey eased and prevented hard-to-treat wound infections.
Just two hours of honey treatment killed 85 per cent of bacteria, the journal Microbiology reports.
The Cardiff University research showed that the honey makes it more difficult for bacteria to take over wounds, by preventing them from forming impenetrable ‘living film’.
While honey’s healing powers have been feted before the science behind its success has not been fully understood.
The study focused on manuka honey, made from nectar collected by bees foraging on New Zealand’s manuka trees, and a type of bacteria called Streptococcus pyogenes.
It is harmless when found on the skin but can cause huge problems when it infects wounds.
Once inside, the germ forms films that prevent antibiotics from getting to work and stop the wound from healing.
The study showed that very small concentrations of the honey stopped these films from forming.
It was also effective in cases where the bacteria had already clumped together to form films. There, just two hours of treatment killed more than eight in ten bugs.

The study concentrated on manuka honey - made from nectar collected by bees foraging on New Zealand¿s manuka trees
The study showed that the honey makes it harder for the bacteria to latch onto wounds, making it harder for them to form the dangerous films.
Researcher Dr Sarah Maddocks said: ‘There is an urgent need to find innovative and effective ways of controlling wound infections that are unlikely to contribute to increased antimicrobial resistance.

More...
The £7 headset that can keep blood pressure low could help thousands of patients
How dust mites can relieve asthma by re-tuning the immune system
‘No instances of honey-resistant bacteria have been reported to date, or seem likely.
‘This is significant as chronic wounds account for up to 4 per cent of health care expenses in the developed world.’
Manuka honey has been shown to be effective against more than 80 different types of bacteria, including hospital superbug MRSA.
While all types of honey have some antibacterial properties, the ingredients of manuka honey make it particularly powerful.
It is possible to buy dressings that already contain the honey, as well apply honey directly to bandages and other dressings.
However, supermarket honey will not do. Any honey used be sterilised to make it of medical grade.

Share this article:
Facebook
Twitter
Google+
Messenger
LinkedIn
Digg it
Newsvine
Fark
Nowpublic
Reddit



Print article
Email article


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2094694/Honey-s-golden-touch-Study-finds-liquid-kills-85-cent-bacteria-hard-treat-wounds.html#ixzz1lLXXQw7B