26/09/2026
Let Beneficial Insects Work for You 🐞🌱
🐞🌱 Are some of your most useful crop-protection allies are already living in your fields?
💡 A new "Beneficial Insects for Crop Protection" technical guide from Agricology, , and Rothamsted Research explores how farmers and growers can encourage predatory insects and other arthropods to help keep crop pests in check naturally.
😔 With insect abundance declining and effective insecticide options diminishing, understanding these relationships is becoming increasingly important.
The guide looks at the predators already at work on farms, their habitats and life cycles, and practical ways to support them as part of Integrated Pest Management (IPM).
Some of the recommendations will be familiar to biodynamic and agroecological growers:
🌼 Create flower-rich margins, hedgerows, beetle banks and in-field strips
🌱 Use diverse cropping and cover crops
🪲 Provide permanent overwintering habitat
🌍 Reduce tillage to protect ground-dwelling predators
🐝 Avoid broad-spectrum insecticides where possible
🌿 Encourage a diversity of beneficial species rather than relying on one predator
Case studies also show how farmers are using conservation biological control to reduce reliance on insecticides while supporting biodiversity, productivity and farm resilience.
👉 Explore Agricology’s Beneficial Insects Hub:
https://buff.ly/oz5KEzi
👉 Link in bio → Biodynamic Life → Click on this post
