Pollinators and Beneficial Insects

Customers want pollinator friendly plants, but producing an aesthetically pleasing plant typical involves the use of control materials to keep insect damage to a minimum. This fact sheet provides information on methods and materials that will help you reduce pest insect damage in the greenhouse without resulting in a plant that will be toxic to pollinators in your customer's yard. This information is suitable for growing all types of plants, but we focus on native plants precisely because they support so much insect life. First we describe the use of natural enemies, such as beneficial insects and beneficial microbes, which offer longer term, more satisfactory results than pesticidal chemicals. Then we discuss reduced toxicity sprays that have short residual activity.