Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden, Revised and Updated Second Edition: A Natural Approach to Pest Control

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This revised and updated edition of Jessica Walliser’s award-winning Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden offers a valuable and science-backed plan for bringing balance back to the garden.

With this indispensable gardening reference—now updated with new research, insights, and voices—learn how to create a healthy, balanced, and diverse garden capable of supporting a hard-working crew of beneficial pest-eating insects and eliminate the need for synthetic chemical pesticides.

After a fascinating introduction to the predator and prey cycle and its importance to both wild ecosystems and home gardens, you’ll meet dozens of pest-munching beneficial insects (the predators) that feast on garden pests (their prey). From ladybugs and lacewings to parasitic wasps and syrphid flies, these good guys of the bug world keep the natural system of checks and balances in prime working order. They help limit pest damage and also serve a valuable role in the garden's food web. But, they won't call your garden home if you don't have the resources they need to survive.

With a hearty population of beneficial insects present in your garden, you’ll say goodbye to common garden pests like aphids, cabbage worms, bean beetles, leafhoppers, and hornworms, without reaching for a spray can. To encourage these good guys to stick around and do their important work, you'll learn how to create a welcoming habitat and fill your garden with the best plants to support them. 

Inside you’ll find:

  • Bug profiles introducing dozens of beneficial insects and the down-and-dirty details on how they catch and eat their prey
  • Plant profiles featuring the best plants for supporting beneficials
  • Interviews with entomologists who focus their life's work on understanding the value of insects, including Doug Tallamy, Paula Shrewsbury, Leslie Allee, Dan Herms, and others
  • An inspiring look at how plants and insects intersect in the most incredible ways
  • Why gardening for bugs is just as important to the greater world as it is to your garden
  • Tips for creating insectary plantings and borders to support a broad range of beneficials
The acclaimed first edition of Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden ushered in a new way to garden; one that appreciates and understands of the power of returning a natural balance to the garden. This revised and updated edition continues to herald and expands on that same important message.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for the first edition of Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden:

“Jessica Walliser lets readers in on the secrets to a garden that buzzes with activity. Her profiles, on the insects that fight pests and the best plants for attracting them, offer clear, practical tips.” —
Martha Stewart Living

“An aid for teachers as well as gardeners, who want to know more about the insects in their world.” —
The Indianapolis Star
 
“With [Jessica Walliser’s] help, you can learn how to control pests through your gardening practices rather than your choice of insecticide.” —
Gardening How-To
 
“A detailed, wholistic, and wonderfully illustrated guide to the lifestyles of all the insects that inhabit the organic garden as well as creating the conditions needed to encourage those you want in the fight against those you don’t.” —
Planet Natural
 
“A delight! Easy to read and entertaining, yet packed with information not only on the beneficial insects themselves, but on the plants that can attract and support them, and on how to incorporate them into your garden. Highly recommended!” —
It’s Not Work, It’s Gardening
 
Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden by Jessica Walliser, is a fresh look at an unavoidable part of the gardening experience.... a must-have tool for new and experienced gardeners alike.” —Free Press

“Learn to identify good bugs and bad bugs…and what to plant to lure the cavalry.” —
Newsday

"In this new version, Walliser offers even more science-based advice to gardeners. I recommend reading (her) updated work to get off to a running start."Horticulture

"...offers a sciencebacked plan for bringing balance back to the garden. Filled with new research, insights, and voices, the book will help you create a healthy and diverse garden capable of supporting beneficial, pest-eating insects and eliminate the need for synthetic chemical pesticides."―
Michigan Gardener

About the Author

Jessica Walliser is a horticulturist and the award-winning author of seven gardening books. In addition, she is co-founder of the popular website SavvyGardening.com. Jessica is a two-time winner of the prestigious American Horticultural Society Book Award for her books Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden: A Natural Approach to Pest Control and Plant Partners: Science-based Companion Planting Strategies for the Vegetable Garden. For 15 years, Jessica contributed two weekly columns to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review where she had the pleasure of covering a wide range of gardening topics. Jessica was also the long-time co-host of The Organic Gardeners, an award-winning program on KDKA Radio in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She has a degree in horticulture from the Pennsylvania State University and is the former owner of a 25-acre organic market farm. 

Review:

4.9 out of 5

97.50% of customers are satisfied

5.0 out of 5 stars My Birthday Present to Myself

S. · September 5, 2023

Did you know that 80% of all animals are insects, and of those, 99% are beneficial or benign?Even if you're not a bug-lover, "Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden" will help you appreciate those hard-working bugs around your property, and why you may want to invite even more by planting certain flowers and shrubs. You'll also learn why the first sign of an insect pest is usually not a reason to panic.Since starting the book, I've enjoyed spotting many of these characters at work in my own garden, including bees, wasps, butterflies, ladybugs, spiders, and dragonflies.Walliser begins with an interesting peek into the world of beneficials. I loved this section and was left wanting more! She then provides a detailed catalogue of helpful insects and plants, complete with photos, descriptions, even USDA zones. The green sidebars share interesting articles on subjects ranging from invasive insects, to beetle banks, to native plants.There is a vast ecosystem, even in the small backyard garden. As a Christian, I attribute this to my Heavenly Father, who made this world with mind-boggling beauty and complexity. I'm thankful for this book that opened my eyes to even more.I purchased this with an Bolo Gift Card I got for my birthday, and was not disappointed. Filled with quality photos and vivid behavioral descriptions, "Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden" will likely cause you see your garden from a whole new perspective.

5.0 out of 5 stars Lots of information

M. · September 28, 2023

The book came great condition and the information is invaluable. This book had us excited to plant all sorts of new plants in the garden and experimenting. Can’t wait to try out some more stuff in the early spring.

5.0 out of 5 stars Get This Bug Book!!

T.E.G.&.G.M. · April 4, 2022

The writing is engaging and personal yet factual and helpful. I create bird & butterfly gardens for a living and am learning plenty for this author. I found the book from her podcast. Pounce on this book like a praying mantis! 🐝 It’s quite a value in cost & information!!

4.0 out of 5 stars An interesting and well-presented book

B.G. · May 19, 2022

This is a totally enjoyable book written about a topic that not too many gardeners consider – enabling the good bugs in your garden so they can keep the bad bugs in control. Like soil, a good garden is about balance, and when you have a deficit in one area you’re going to have a problem. Our problem is generally killing all bugs to get rid of the one that may be eating our crops. This is an easy and interesting read, my only disappointment is that the lovely pictures make it a little difficult to identify bugs that I am unfamiliar with. I find that I have to go online and look up the individual bugs the author discusses so that I can see a close-up and detailed picture of them. The pictures in the book are very artistic but we could use a little more anatomical detail to recognize the individual bugs. And sadly, the book is silent about earwigs and slugs, two of my worst enemies in the garden. If there were some helpful tips on bullies that would keep them in line, my life would be heavenly.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book.

J. · December 26, 2022

I really like this book. A lot of great information.

5.0 out of 5 stars It's a cliche, I know, but I couldn't put this down!

D.K. · March 4, 2022

I mean, literally. I sat and read the whole book cover to cover without stopping. Devoured the info, no skimming. And I learned so much! Look, I've been saturating myself in everything gardening for decades, and in the last five years I have spent most of my time trying to design a forest garden in my backyard according to permaculture principles. I understand not to use pesticides and why; I know about soil health and diversity and balancing the ecosystem. But, I tell you, this book brought it all together for me in a thoroughly enjoyable, quite profound way.One of the things I really appreciate about Jessica is her admission of how ignorantly she went about things in the past and her humility now in how much she still does not know. It is a reminder to me to stop trying to manage my garden and start letting Mother Earth and all her magnificently evolved beings (plants, animals, fungi) do what they do best: keep each other and their complex ecosystemic world in balance.Here I was about to go out setting neem oil "bad bug" traps in advance of planting my spring veggies, and she reminded me that the pests are needed to attract the beneficial insects that eat them, and that if I leave those pests alone the predators WILL come. So now I'm occupying myself with what I did, intellectually at least, know is important: increasing diversity to increase resilience, observing instead of panicking (like with Jessica's tulip poplar/aphid/ladybugs tale), and stop being so anxious because, hey, nature's got this...has had it for eons.This doesn't mean, of course, that I am to do nothing; Jessica has provided fantastic suggestions on how anyone can begin to shape a pollinator-friendly garden and has given me a lot of ideas. I was so impressed with this book that I immediately went and bought her Plant Partners book, a scientific approach to companion planting. I'm off now to plan my beetle bank and to look at all my gazillion seeds in a new light.

essential

J. · August 1, 2024

Once you start paying to the insect population in your garden, you can’t help but wonder how you missed this important part of your ecosystem before. I now notice the beneficial bugs along with the pest.

Great information, I learnt so much

L. · August 21, 2023

This is a great book and a handy guide in the garden. This book is the reason I want to learn more about bugs and pollinators. I learnt so much about insects and what plants I should grow to attract the beneficial. After reading this book I have a clear direction of what my plant list is. Now I know pollinators are more than just bees. I have learnt to appreciate bugs such as ants, beetles, and wasps.I recommend this to anyone who has no idea about bugs in your garden and want to start learning.

Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden, Revised and Updated Second Edition: A Natural Approach to Pest Control

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