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This may seem weird but you want bugs and birds in your yard when organic gardening.
Almost 98% of all bugs in your garden are beneficial in there individual ways. You have your assassins, you have your pollinators, you have your insect larva, so on and so forth. You want all of these diverse species in your garden to take care of all of your pests that are bad such as aphids and horned tomatoe worms.
I am not going to go into all of the bad bugs, I wish I could but it is per plant you have in the ground. The best way to tell if you are having pest issues when you see bugs on your plant is watch the plant for a couple of days and if you see holes in your leaves or a couple holes in your fruit you are going to have to search your plant for the problem. But if it is a beneficial it is not going to effect your plant one bit and it will keep the pests off your plant, leave those bugs on your plant. Even if that bug is no longer on the plant it might have layed eggs on it and larva of those particular insects eat 10 to 100 times the amount of pests that there parents do. This is a very good thing if you have a healthy garden.
Wasps in an organic garden are our friends. They take out caterpillars! Do not destroy nests that will not effect you or your children. I have never had a horned tomatoe worm problem because I have wasp nests in my insectory. They also love tent caterpillars, So if you have a problem with those don't call an exterminator just poke holes in the silk so wasps can fly in and take them out. It is pretty amazing how well this works. I had a small problem in one of my pecan trees last year and I poked holes in multiple spots and the wasps took care of my problem in less then a month.
Bees are not the only bug that pollinates. We have Texas native flies that pollinate, these are not your house flies those are European. Native Texas flies are colorful and have a smaller body. The best way to draw in native insects is to plant some type of native wild flower. I will post another thread on how to attract beneficials through an insectory.
Now here comes the fun part.
Birds are just as beneficial as any bug in the organic garden. Yes I know all that you have ever been told is keep the birds out. Well most birds eat insects. All though they eat your beneficials they also eat your non beneficial as well. They also give you natural organic fertilizer and they naturally loosen your soil by scratching for seeds and looking for bugs.
The key to keeping them out of your ripe fruit is to keep your birds in your yard watered. Yes that's right birds only eat fruit and vegetables to get there water. This is what they are programmed to do in the wild so that is why they do it in our back yard. If you keep a few bird baths in your back yard for them to get there water or a pond, or a bog you will have very few birds messing with your crops.
Remember every thing in nature is beneficial to the organic garden. Except for drought!
Almost 98% of all bugs in your garden are beneficial in there individual ways. You have your assassins, you have your pollinators, you have your insect larva, so on and so forth. You want all of these diverse species in your garden to take care of all of your pests that are bad such as aphids and horned tomatoe worms.
I am not going to go into all of the bad bugs, I wish I could but it is per plant you have in the ground. The best way to tell if you are having pest issues when you see bugs on your plant is watch the plant for a couple of days and if you see holes in your leaves or a couple holes in your fruit you are going to have to search your plant for the problem. But if it is a beneficial it is not going to effect your plant one bit and it will keep the pests off your plant, leave those bugs on your plant. Even if that bug is no longer on the plant it might have layed eggs on it and larva of those particular insects eat 10 to 100 times the amount of pests that there parents do. This is a very good thing if you have a healthy garden.
Wasps in an organic garden are our friends. They take out caterpillars! Do not destroy nests that will not effect you or your children. I have never had a horned tomatoe worm problem because I have wasp nests in my insectory. They also love tent caterpillars, So if you have a problem with those don't call an exterminator just poke holes in the silk so wasps can fly in and take them out. It is pretty amazing how well this works. I had a small problem in one of my pecan trees last year and I poked holes in multiple spots and the wasps took care of my problem in less then a month.
Bees are not the only bug that pollinates. We have Texas native flies that pollinate, these are not your house flies those are European. Native Texas flies are colorful and have a smaller body. The best way to draw in native insects is to plant some type of native wild flower. I will post another thread on how to attract beneficials through an insectory.
Now here comes the fun part.
Birds are just as beneficial as any bug in the organic garden. Yes I know all that you have ever been told is keep the birds out. Well most birds eat insects. All though they eat your beneficials they also eat your non beneficial as well. They also give you natural organic fertilizer and they naturally loosen your soil by scratching for seeds and looking for bugs.
The key to keeping them out of your ripe fruit is to keep your birds in your yard watered. Yes that's right birds only eat fruit and vegetables to get there water. This is what they are programmed to do in the wild so that is why they do it in our back yard. If you keep a few bird baths in your back yard for them to get there water or a pond, or a bog you will have very few birds messing with your crops.
Remember every thing in nature is beneficial to the organic garden. Except for drought!
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