Bug Bytes: The Role of Creepy-Crawlies in Your Garden

Ladybugs ©WCS/Julie Larsen

Does a wriggly earthworm give you a chill? Do you run from the buzz of honeybees? The presence of insects in your garden is often an indicator of a healthy yard. So put down that fly swatter, and make room for bugs!

At the Bronx Zoo’s Butterfly Garden, visitors learn that insects are essential to keeping our planet green. With their preferred diet of leaves and fruits, they help control plant growth, and the nutrients they add to the soil in turn stimulate new greenery. Insects also help pollinate flowers as they feed on nectar and fly from stem to stem. In fact, most flowers cannot reproduce without the help of insects.

At the base of the food chain, insects are also nutritious food for many other animals—including fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, other insects, and even some plants.

To attract more insects to your garden, consider the following tips:

• Provide Seasonal Dining
  Different types of flowers bloom in different seasons. Planting violets
  in spring, shasta daisies in summer, and cosmos in fall keep insects coming throughout the year.
  

• Be Natural
  Use compost and other natural fertilizers that serve as food for insects and help nurture your garden.
  
  
• Encourage Diversity
  A variety of plants will attract a variety of insects. As caterpillars, black swallowtail butterflies enjoy munching on fennel, great-spangled fritillaries prefer violets, and buckeyes dine on snapdragons.
  
  
• Go Native
  Local insects eat local or native plants. Many cultivated plants have no odors, nectar, or pollen to attract insects.
  
  
• Avoid Toxic Sprays
  Pesticides kill caterpillars and other insects. Look for insect-safe alternatives that are also good for your plants.
  
  
• Buy Insect-Friendly Foods
  By choosing foods grown without chemicals toxic to insects and other animals, you are encouraging wildlife-friendly farm.

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