Attract Ground Beetles to the Garden
I love ground beetles. They are kind of like little living tanks that deploy during the night and lay waste to slug eggs, snails, potato beetles, and cutworms.
There are nearly 2500 different species of ground beetles in North America. Most ground beetles do good work, as evidenced by the common names of some beetle species; my favorites being caterpillar hunter (Calosoma scrutator) and eastern snail eater (Scaphinotus elevatus). If you follow these three simple rules, it is easy enough to encourage them to live in your garden:
Don’t use insecticides. Ever. Insecticides, even organic ones like pyrethrum and rotenone, can kill ground beetles and other beneficial insects, which upsets the predator/prey balance in your garden. Attracting a diverse range of beneficial insects is a much better pest control strategy!
Mulch. Ground beetles like to hideout underneath rocks, leaf litter, and woody debris—so adding a nice layer of wood chips or shredded leaves to ornamental garden beds and pathways provides plenty of habitat.
Plant ground covers. Low growing plants, including edibles like sage, savory, thyme, and strawberries also provide shelter for ground beetles.
The wonderful beetle letterpress note card pictured up top is printed on bamboo paper by Smock—a Syracuse, New York print shop. Today and tomorrow (January 20 and 21) Smock will be donating 100% of the proceeds from their Everyday line (which includes the beetle note cards) to the Doctor’s Without Borders Haiti Relief program. I hope you’ll join me in supporting this benefit by stocking up on gift, thank-you, and note cards.
Hi Willi, what a great post. I love the helpful garden tips, awesome ground beetle print on bamboo paper, and the fact 100% of all Smock purchases today are donated to Haiti relief! Fabulous! Thanks for sharing!
January 21st, 2010 at 11:50 amJustine–Thanks! I ordered to sets of note cards. I can’t wait for them to arrive and am happy that my money is going to Doctors Without Borders!
January 21st, 2010 at 12:08 pmHi Willi, I have a huge snail problem, so the ground beetles are something I will try to encourage. I’m looking for alternatives to using sluggo, which is supposed to be safe for pets and organic gardens but I don’t like the idea of any kind of pesticide. It contains iron phosphate, but the labels says its only 1% of the ingredients, and since is made by lilly miller…I’d rather not.
I found some online info. about Decollate Snails eating brown snails, so I might try to order some of them. Also heard that garter snakes eat snails. Do you have any info. or advise on battling snails besides beer traps?
thanks
June 6th, 2010 at 9:52 pmJohn–Sorry to hear you have a bad snail probelm. I haven’t found the copper barriers to be very effective. I’d don’t know anything about decollate snails, but I would be wary of introducing something that is not native to the garden. I’ve found beer traps work really pretty well and also handpicking the snails and throwing them away (or giving them to chickens, if you have them).
June 9th, 2010 at 9:19 am