It turns out that some plants are better than others at attracting beneficial insect – parasites (those insects that attack and eat the pest insects). Here are the plants on a recent trial that attracted the most parasitic good guy insects.
They were attracted by the flower and pollen as food sources.
You may want to include some in your perennial garden and plant others at the back of the borders out of site if they’re not suited to your garden design.
- Agastache hybrid (anise hyssop)
- Ageratina aromatica (lesser snakeroot)
- Aloysia virgata (almond bush)
- Buddleja davidii (orange eye butterflybush)
- Calamintha nepeta (lesser calamint)
- Conoclinium coelestinum (blue mist flower)
- Daucus carota (Queen Anne’s lace)
- Galium aparine (stickywilly)
- Geranium carolinianum (crane’s bill)
- Lobularia maritima (alyssum)
- Monarda punctata (dotted horsemint)
- Physopis graminifolia (narrowleaf silkgrass)
- Phyla nodiflora (Greene turkey tangle fogfruit)
- Raphanus raphanistrum (wild radish)
- Sisyrinchium augustifolium (narrow leaf blueeyedgrass)
- Solidago fistulosa (pinebarren goldenrod)
- Spermacoce verticillata (shrubby false buttonweed)
- Stachys floridana (hedge nettle)
- Stellaria media (villars chickweed)