35+ Plants that Attract Beneficial Insects

Have you ever wished you had fewer garden pests without using chemicals?

One simple way is to grow plants that attract beneficial insects. These helpful insects pollinate flowers and eat many common garden pests.

Including some of the plants listed below in your yard will help invite helpful insects to visit.

Different insects like different flowers, so growing a mix of plants will attract a wider variety of helpful insects.

Plants for Beneficial Insects

Some of the best plants for attracting these insects are:

Herbs like rosemary, thyme, oregano, basil, and lavender are excellent plants for attracting beneficial insects [1]. Their fragrant blossoms attract pollinators and useful insects that eat garden pests.

Planting a few of these aromatic herbs together helps create an environment that is helpful to insects like bees.

Native flowering plants are also ideal. These include coneflowers, sunflowers, asters, goldenrods, and milkweeds. Their familiar blooms attract many local beneficial insects.

Try to grow several kinds of native plants. They provide food and shelter for beneficial insects during different stages of their lives.

Fennel produces clusters of tiny yellow flowers that attract many beneficial insects. Bees, hoverflies, lacewings, ladybugs, and tiny parasitic wasps visit its blooms for nectar and pollen.

Let a few fennel plants flower to make your garden more welcoming to these helpful insects.

Flowering vegetables can also attract helpful garden insects. Tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, pumpkins, and carrots grown for seed produce flowers that provide nectar and pollen for helpful insects.

Plants for Lacewings

Adult green lacewings usually feed on nectar, pollen, and honeydew, while their hungry larvae eat aphids, mealybugs, thrips, mites, and many other garden pests.

Plants that produce small, clustered flowers will attract lacewings to your garden.

Some of these plants include yarrow, fennel, Queen Anne’s lace, dill, and sunflowers.

Plants for Ladybugs

Ladybugs are also known as lady beetles or ladybird beetles.

They are beneficial garden insects. They eat common pests, like aphids, spider mites, and scale insects.

To attract ladybugs to your garden, plant flowers that they find appealing.

The best plants for attracting ladybugs include buckwheat, fennel, and common yarrow. They also visit marigolds, cosmos, and coriander for pollen and nectar.

Plants for Dragonflies

If you want to attract dragonflies to your garden, adding a small pond or another water source will help.

Plants such as bearded iris, water lilies, swamp milkweed, Joe-Pye weed, and yarrow also provide good places for them to rest and hunt.

Plant several of these flowers around your pond or garden. This helps create an inviting habitat for dragonflies.

Plants for Bees and Butterflies

Choose single-petal flowers whenever possible. They make it easier for bees and butterflies to reach the nectar.

The best options include helenium, yarrow, dandelion, and perennial asters. Black-eyed Susan, sage, verbena, and cardinal flowers are also great options.

Provide a variety of plants that bloom from spring to fall. This will give beneficial insects a continuous food source in your yard.

Cardinal flowers will also attract hummingbirds.

Plants for Wasps

While some wasps can sting, many species are helpful garden predators.

They prey on common garden pests. Plants that attract wasps will welcome these natural predators into your garden.

Queen Anne’s lace, sunflowers, sedum, goldenrod, and fennel are some of the best plants to attract wasps.

Plants for Praying Mantises

Praying mantises are beneficial insects that you may encounter in your garden. They eat grasshoppers, moths, and many other insect pests.

Some of the best plants to attract praying mantises are dill, rose bushes, fennel, angelica, and alfalfa.

You can also attract praying mantises by growing flowers and herbs that bring in the insects they like to eat. Plant flowers and herbs that bring in their favorite foods—other insects!

Plants for Soldier Beetles

Soldier beetles are also known as leatherwings. They are beneficial in the garden, as they feed on pests such as aphids, mites, and caterpillars.

Plant flowers that attract these helpful allies to your garden. Some of those plants include poppies, hydrangeas, marigolds, goldenrod, coreopsis, and wild lettuce.

Plants for Hoverflies

Hoverflies (also called syrphid flies) are excellent pollinators. Their larvae also eat aphids and other soft-bodied garden pests.

To attract hoverflies, plant flowers that they favor. These include wild carrot, wild mustard, fennel, ivy, asters, and calendula.

In addition to planting hoverfly-friendly flowers, avoid spraying pesticides whenever possible. They can kill hoverfly larvae and adults along with the pests you are trying to control.

You can also provide a shallow water source with stones for hoverflies to land on. This makes your garden even more welcoming.

More Great Plants for Beneficial Insects

Many other flowers and herbs can also attract beneficial insects to your garden.

Sweet alyssum is one of the best choices [2]. Its tiny flowers attract hoverflies, lacewings, ladybugs, bees, and tiny parasitic wasps.

Borage is another excellent plant. Its bright blue flowers bloom for a long time and provide plenty of nectar for bees and butterflies.

Bee balm attracts bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds with its bright, nectar-rich flowers. It also adds bright color to flower beds.

Cosmos and zinnias are easy-to-grow flowers that bloom for months. Their colorful flowers attract bees, butterflies, hoverflies, and other useful insects.

Blanket flower and mountain mint are also great additions. They provide nectar and pollen for many pollinators throughout the growing season.

Growing several different flowers that bloom from spring through fall will attract more beneficial insects and keep them coming back to your garden.

Takeaway

Growing a variety of flowering plants is one of the easiest ways to attract beneficial insects. These helpful insects pollinate flowers and naturally help control many common garden pests.

Give them food, water, and shelter, and they will help pollinate your plants and keep many garden pests under control.