7 Ways to Boost Beneficial Garden Insects

March 10, 2026

If you think about the insects in your garden, there’s a very high chance you firstly think about all those pesty ones. You know, the ones that cause damage, then lay their eggs and multiply, and are the bane of your existence …

It’s the good and beneficial garden insects that are easily forgotten or lumped together with the pests. Yet it’s these very insects that help our gardens to thrive. They improve soil health, pollinate flowers, act as natural pest control, encourage more native wildlife and improve your garden’s overall biodiversity. That’s why we should do everything we can to boost their presence.

7 Ways to Increase Beneficial Garden Insects

Here are seven things you can do to boost the number of good insects in your garden:

1. Create shelter – a clean and tidy garden may look aesthetically pleasing, but it’s not too healthy for insects. Instead, let the grass grow a bit longer, let the leaves remain on the ground and build a few little bug hotels to provide shelter for our tiny friends.

2. Provide water – little water sources in the garden can encourage native birds and insects to come and stay. A reliable water source means survival for them. In the winter, leave out some sugar water, as this can attract tui, kaka and waxeye native birds for whom nectar resources are in short supply at this time.

3. Plant bee friendly flowers – pollination makes the world go around, so encourage the bees by planting plenty of flowers.

4. Avoid using pesticides –using chemicals to kill of the bad bugs can also kill the good bugs, so avoid if you can.

5. NZ native plantings – you can boost the number of good insects by planting a mixture of native trees and shrubs. These native plants do provide the environment needed by all kinds of insects, including the predatory bugs you want to attract as they eat the pesty ones!

6. Reduce artificial lighting – those solar lights may look nice to humans, but they disrupt an insect’s natural environment and can discourage them from staying.

7. Spread out the compost and mulch – both mulch and compost provide warm and moist places for garden insects to live and use. Insects are necessary to breakdown this organic matter too!

As well as wanting encourage insects into your garden, you probably also want to know how to get rid of the ones you don’t want! Our article on garden pests and what you can do about them will walk you through who the key culprits are and how to remove them.