Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden—4.75 Stars
8/17/2026
In her second edition of Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden: A Natural Approach to Pest Control, horticulturist and award-winning author Jessica Walliser makes the case that gardeners should be making their gardens insect friendly. In her world, nearly all bugs are welcome because they are pollinators, decomposers, predators, or food for other creatures, while only 1% have no known beneficial purpose.
The book includes profiles of beneficial predators and parasitoids and groups them in broad categories – true bugs, true flies, predatory beetles, parasitic wasps, dragonflies and damselflies, lacewings, mantids, and arachnids -- and describes what they eat and the best plants for attracting them. It also includes interviews with entomologists and suggestions for creating insectary plantings and borders.
Reader Poll
Enjoyable - 4.75 out of 5 stars
Educational - 4.75 out of 5 stars
Recommended - 4.75 out of 5 stars
Reader Comments
Our Ramsey County Garden Volunteer readers gave the book an average of 4.8 out of 5 points for how much they enjoyed the book, how useful it would be, and how much they would recommend it to another gardener. Comments included the following:
“I need to own a copy of this book to reference as I garden. The list of predator insects, their preferred prey, and the host plants that encourage them to stay in or near your garden are incredibly well-done and useful. The encouragement from the author makes it feel very achievable.”
“Haven't paid enough attention to other insects and what they consumed … or the variety [of plants] needed to bring them to my yard.”
“Fun book with great pictures. Helped me to understand more about the bugs I see in my gardens. Have already recommended it to my gardening friends.”
“An entertaining author with vast knowledge of the natural world and insects as related to gardening”
“This is a valuable reference book for all gardeners. Detailed, easy to understand information about the relationship between insects and plants.”
Next Book Club Discussion
The next book selected for discussion is When the Forest Breathes by the two-time New York Times best-selling author Suzanne Simard.
