Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden, Revised and Updated Second Edition

I have been drawn to beautiful gardens all my life. I have not really had the opportunity to create my own, but I still love learning about them. I was curious about this book because I know you cannot have a thriving garden without a healthy bug population as well. This book does an excellent job of teaching you about both and brings a healthy dose of balance. There are excellent photos provided for this novice who has no idea what I am looking for. A lot of information is provided that can either be taken in all at once, or more topically, if desired. Chapters are ordered out in a logical fashion and the content is written for all to understand. This is encouraging for me, because again, novice here! When I am ready and able to set up my own garden, this will be one of my go-to resources.

I received a complimentary copy from the publisher via NetGalley and all opinions expressed are solely my own, freely given.

Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden is an accessible and logical guide to natural pest control for gardeners written by Jessica Walliser. Due out 1st Feb 2022 from Quarto on their Cool Springs Press imprint, it's 208 pages and will be available in paperback format.

This is the second/revised edition of the book which was first published in 2013. I don't own a copy of the first edition for comparison, so the review covers only the second. The layout is inviting and logically arranged. The intro covers the basics of entomology and allied concepts: what beneficial insects are, how they work, and what they eat (harmful bugs, mostly). The intro is followed by a bestiary with some of the most common groups of insectivorous and parasitoid bugs.

The book is lavishly illustrated with clear color photos throughout. The photos show featured insects in various life stages including eggs, pupa, and adults which make identification easier. Tips and extra info is included in highlighted text boxes throughout. Photo captions are well written and easy to understand. The chapter on useful plants for native pollinators and parasitoids has been written with a good eye toward garden design and diversity. There are a lot of plants which are beautiful and useful and which people will want to plant in their gardens (instead of hiding the weedy looking ones). There's a lot of info about companion planting and I was interested to see that the author covers purchasable controls and predator species.

There's an abbreviated resource and links list in the back of the book which is mostly slanted toward readers in the USA but will also provide relevant info for readers living in other parts of the world. The book also includes a cross referenced index.

No single book is going to be the holy grail of gardening information; this one does a good job of deep diving into an important (and often overlooked) aspect of natural controls and organic methods.

Five stars. This would make a good selection for public or school library acquisition, makers groups, gardening and activity groups, home and community gardeners, smallholders, and the like.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Good. Gives insight into the why, how and what type of beneficial bugs for gardening. Easy enough for complete beginners but meaty enough for those who have been at gardening for biodiversity for a while.

Pros: During the pandemic, one of my favorite activities was taking an online course that followed the curriculum of a master gardener course. One of the topics that most interested me was attracting good bugs to the garden. I was interested to read this book and learn more about the topic. This book is beginner friendly but also offers a depth of information for experienced gardeners. I'm especially interested in save the bees movement and hope to take what I learned in this book and apply it to my flowerbeds so that they will attract more bees.

Cons: The only sort-of con I can think of is that this book was difficult to read as an arc due to formatting. I think it will be fantastic as a printed book because of all of the beautiful photographs.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing, Cool Springs Press for the opportunity to read this book!

This is just what I needed! We have so many pests and it's nice to know there's a natural method of pest control and this book tells you exactly how it achieve that! Highly recommend!

Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden, Second Edition: A Natural Approach to Pest Control by Jessica Walliser is updated with new research, insights, and voices in order to teach readers how to create a healthy, balanced, and diverse garden capable of supporting a hard-working crew of beneficial pest-eating insects and eliminate the need for synthetic chemical pesticides. After an introduction to the predator and prey cycle and its importance to both wild ecosystems and home gardens, you'll meet dozens of pest-munching beneficial insects (the predators) that feast on garden pests (their prey). From ladybugs and lacewings to parasitic wasps and syrphid flies, these good guys of the bug world keep the natural system of checks and balances in prime working order. They help limit pest damage and also serve a valuable role in the garden's food web. With a hearty population of beneficial insects present in your garden, you'll say goodbye to common garden pests like aphids, cabbage worms, bean beetles, leafhoppers, and hornworms, without reaching for a spray can. To encourage these good guys to stick around and do their important work, you'll learn how to create a welcoming habitat and fill your garden with the best plants to support them.

Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden is a valuable resource for gardeners that would prefer to avoid using chemicals on their lawn, garden, or landscape in general. I like that the author includes personal experience as well as the science and benefits of this approach.I like that interviews with entomologists and detailed information on the lives of some of the specific insects and plants talked about are included. I found the tips on creating a space that encourages beneficial insects to call home to be valuable and interesting. Information on companion planting, and how various plants and insects interact was thoroughly explained and I definitely learned a great deal from this book. I found the content to be well organized, which makes it good for reading straight through of focusing on a specific topic of interest when you need it. I thought it could be a valuable resource for new and experienced gardeners. The information is accessible, but still provides a great depth of information. I also liked that there is a usable index and recommended resources included at the end of the book. This always makes me happy. Perhaps, with this newfound knowledge, I can manage to solve the issues I have with a particular corner of my yard.

Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden would be a valuable addition to a gardener's personal library as well as in public libraries.

Oh, wow!!! This book is very pretty. It had a lot more information than I was capable of understanding in just reading it, but, with that said, it would make an excellent coffee table book or reference book for the garden. I am wanting to use the info from near the end of the book to help add some companion plantings to my garden. The book will also come in handy as a reference book for deciding if the bugs I find are beneficial or not.

Book: Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden, Revised and Updated Second Edition: A Natural Approach to Pest Control



Author: Jessica Walliser



Pub Info: 1 Feb 2022, Quarto Publishing Group – Cool Springs Press, Cool Springs Press


Genres: Arts & Photographs, Gardening / Home, Nature / Animals

I received an electronic copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for honest feedback. Thank you to the author, photographers, publisher, and NG.

This book is divided into chapters about 1) About The Beneficials: what insects/how they work, etc., 2) Beneficial Bug Profiles, 3) Gardening for Bugs, 4) Plant Profiles (the things that the bugs are attracted to!), 5) Your Beneficial Border, 6) Companion Planting, 7) Putting it All Together, 8) The Commercial Stuff.

In terms of content, I think that this book provides content that is for a skill level in gardening that is slightly above beginner. It is still very beneficial to learn any of this, in fact, I didn’t know a lot of this information that I found very valuable. It’s something that would be helpful for those who have the basics of gardening down and want to improve. The photographs are nice and the layout flows well.

This book sets out to provide very specific information and it sticks to it. So if you're looking for that specific information (which is articulated straight forward in the title lol), then this book is for you.