How to Attract Beneficial Wildlife to the Home Garden

Are you yearning for ways for how to attract beneficial wildlife to your home garden?

Maybe wildlife that will retract harmful animals that cause problems in your gardens?  Like digging up your flowers. Or eating your veggies. Did you know that you could NATURALLY deter these pests by implementing beneficial wildlife in your home garden? 

Or maybe you want to help make your garden even more beautiful by implementing helpful beneficial insects for a garden that will pollinate flowers and help vegetables produce even longer. And you’re wondering how to do just that.

In this post, I will

• How to attract beneficial wildlife to your garden
  
• Information about helpful animals in a garden, naming 7 of my most favorite beneficial animals for garden. 
  
• Good reptiles and amphibians for the garden.

Let’s begin with my absolute most favorite beneficial insect. The honey bee. 

Bees

As a beekeeper, I cannot say enough good things about honey bees. I never noticed bees buzzing around before I got my own set of hives. However, bees can fly for miles, so if you know your neighbors have honeybee hives, there are things you can do to attract them to you. 

Or, you can get your own set of hives. Beekeeping is a fun hobby to have. 

Learn about beekeeping here. 

Learn about beekeeping equipment here

First of all, bees love legumes. Of course, alfalfa and clover. In the garden, it’s peas and beans. But I’ve also noticed gorgeous squash, eggplant and sweet potato blooms on these vegetable plants. Along with that, extended seasons where I doubled my normal yield in veggies. 

So, you can see why I dub the bee as the most beneficial insects for the garden (at least my garden). 

Pollination is not only very beneficial to vegetable crops, but also to flowers. Growing wildflowers can help attract bees to your home garden. 

And another one of my favorite pollinators is the butterfly.

Butterflies

While the butterfly is a pollinator, that’s not it’s true purpose in life or in your garden. They aren’t truly as efficient in the job as pollinator in the garden.

Butterflies add beauty and grace to any garden. We love seeing them. Catching them and enjoying them.

The best way to attract them is to grow beautiful wildflowers.

You can also implement a butterfly house right at your garden. 

Finally, attract butterflies by simply feeding them some sweetness. 

The next animals aren’t as sweet but I’ve found them to be an important part of gardening. 

Snakes

I’ll tell you right now, I’m not a fan of snakes. Whether you’re a fan of snakes or not, they can be a great help in the garden. 

The type of snake you need in your garden will depend on what problems you have. If you have a rodent issue like I do, you need a bigger, more aggressive snake. The bull snake is a popular choice in my neck of the woods for rodent control in gardens. Another one is the black rat snake.

In fact, an old story I love hearing about is when my great grandfather used to catch bull snakes to put in his basement to control mice during the fall months into winter and spring. Then, he would catch them again and remove them when summer rolled around. I’m sure he put them in his garden as well. 

But if you just have an issue with detrimental insects, all you need is a few little harmless garden snakes, such as the garter snake. They adore insects and will leave you alone most of the time.

My motto with snakes

As long as I can see them or know they are there, I won’t freak out as they slither past me. They can really be very beneficial when it comes to rodent or insect control.

How to attract snakes? Well, they should come in with the rodents and also if there’s water at ground level. Or you can catch them in the wild like my great grandpa did. 

To keep snakes in your garden, they need places to hide. You might find them around your garden veggies with lots of canopy or beside the garden in a tall grassy area. Just keep in mind that they prefer to stay hidden from you. They are more scared of you than you are of them. 

Toads

Another awesome predator of harmful insects is the toad. In grade school, we learned how they eat insects with their long sticky tongues. Pretty cool! 

These are great to have around in your gardens. We used to not like to touch them as kids because we were warned they would give us warts. Well, I know now that’s not true. So, have the kids catch as many as you can. 

Ponds or wet areas are the best way to attract and keep toads to your garden. You can also build or purchase a toad house for your little friends for safe refuge. 

But, your garden toads better watch out for your snakes and the next animal on the list, too.

Owls

Another helpful rodent lover is the owl. Owls love mice but also go after bunnies and squirrels. 

This makes them near and dear to my heart. Just as long as they stay away from my chickens!

Typically, they don’t harm chickens if there’s plenty of rodent-like animals in the trees and the gardens. They like to be hidden in trees nearby and have their nesting area established in order to stay around.

Since owls really don’t make their own nests by themselves, many people will make or purchase nesting boxes to hang in a tree for them. 

I love sitting outside at night listening to the “Who-Hoos” of our neighboring owls. I also love seeing less and less bunnies coming into my garden. And I love seeing more hummingbirds!

Hummingbirds

The hummingbird is like the butterfly of the avian world. They do move pollen from plant to plant and they love small insects. 

You can attract hummingbirds to your garden by feeding them a 4:1 ratio of sugar nectar.

Another idea is to hand fruit, such as bananas or oranges in trees. This makes great treats for the hummingbirds. They also love the fruit flies that come with the fruit. 

And so does our final favorite friend on our garden animals list. 

Bats

Maybe not one you would think of as a beneficial animal? They are more beneficial animals to humans if we want to work outside in the cooler parts of the day. I always have the most trouble with mosquitoes during that time when I really want to work outside.

Bats love mosquitoes. Believe it or not, bats can be very beneficial at night when the mosquitoes come out in the summertime evenings.  

To attract bats to your garden, hang fruit in the trees or give them a bat house. 

Other Beneficial Insects in the Garden

There are other insects that help with harmful insect control that I’d like to name. They are:

• Mantids
• Ladybugs
• Fireflies
• Dragonflies

How to attract these to the garden? Simply plant colorful and beautiful plants and flowers that attract beneficial insects. Avoid spraying insecticides as much as possible. These beneficial insects for garden should take care of the insects you’re trying to get rid of. 

Other Beneficial Amphibians + Reptiles

These other animals are also very awesome in controlling insects and small rodents in the garden.

• Garden Lizard Types
• Geckos
• Skinks
• Salamanders

Because we all know that rodents and harmful insects cause problems. We’d rather do this naturally and help out our ecosystem. We also save money when we don’t use chemical, allowing us to save that for better things down the road.

Attract All These Beneficial Animals for Garden Success

I’ve given you 7 plus some animals to attract to your home gardens to help with harmful insect and wildlife control.

The main objective for how to attract beneficial wildlife to your home garden is to know what you need to control and then attract that beneficial animal or insect to help control it. Whether it’s creating that beneficial insect habitat or catching reptiles to place in your garden, I hope I’ve covered enough resources and information about helpful animals in a garden to help you take that next step. 

Please leave a comment for your favorite way for how to attract beneficial wildlife into your garden or yard. 

How to Attract Beneficial Wildlife is a sample chapter in my book Smart Gardening Made Simple. You, too, can learn all the simple steps for becoming a smarter gardener. 

~ Much Love ~

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