How to control garden pests without hurting bees

The bees are in there the whole time you're spraying

Something starts chewing the beans, you grab whatever's under the sink, and the thing nobody thinks about at that moment is that the same flowers the aphids are sitting on are the flowers the bees are working. I'm soft on bees, I'll admit that up front, but it isn't only sentiment, because a veggie patch with no pollinators in it gives you flowers that drop off and a pumpkin vine that sets nothing.

The good news is that almost all of this comes down to when you spray rather than whether you're allowed to.

Timing does most of the work

Bees forage when it's warm and bright, so they're out in the middle of a sunny day and they're back in the hive by dusk. Spray late in the evening or very early in the morning and the wet surface has dried long before they're on it. That one change protects more bees than any product choice you'll make.

The other rule is to keep it off open flowers. Spray the stems and the underside of the leaves, where the aphids actually sit, and leave anything in bloom alone. If the plant is covered in flower and the pest is bad enough that you can't avoid it, pick the flowers off first or wait a week.

Be honest about what the sprays do

Pyrethrum is a plant-derived insecticide and people read "natural" and assume it's harmless. It isn't selective. It kills whatever it lands on wet, bees included, and it just breaks down faster than the synthetic ones do. So it's a fine thing to have on the shelf and a bad thing to fog a flowering plant with at 2 in the afternoon.

The oils are gentler in practice because they work by smothering rather than by poisoning, so anything not sitting still on the leaf when you spray is mostly unaffected. Same rule applies though. Evening, off the flowers.

The bits that don't involve spraying at all

• Turn the leaves over weekly. 20 aphids squashed with a thumb on a Sunday is the whole job. 2,000 of them a fortnight later is a spray.
• Let the predators move in. Ladybirds and lacewings will do the aphids for nothing, and they only turn up if there's something for them to eat, which means tolerating a few pests rather than sterilising the patch.
• Plant something flowering nearby. Alyssum, marigolds, dill, coriander and nasturtium all pull in the small predatory insects as well as the bees, and we carry seed for every one of them.
• Use a barrier for the snails. A barrier strip around a seedling bed does the job overnight without anything toxic going anywhere near a bee.

One thing to leave out of it: fennel. It gets recommended constantly as a predator-attracting plant and it's a declared weed in South Australia, so it doesn't belong in a garden here no matter how good the insects find it.

Companion planting, without overselling it

Basil next to tomatoes, garlic in with the roses, marigolds through the veggie beds, and nasturtium anywhere you've got a gap. These are worth doing and they're worth being realistic about, because they shift the odds rather than removing the problem. You'll still get aphids. You'll just get fewer of them, and you'll have somewhere for the good insects to live while they deal with the rest.

Shop related products

• Multicrop EcoPest Oil Insect Spray. Smothers rather than poisons, which is why it's the first one I reach for.
• Brunnings White Oil RTU 1L. Ready to use, and the right answer for scale on citrus.
• D.T. Brown Nasturtium Jewel Mixed. Grows anywhere, flowers for months, and the aphids often go to it instead of your beans.
• D.T. Brown Alyssum, 750 seed pack. Low, cheap and constantly in flower, so it feeds the small predators all season.
• D.T. Brown Marigold, 250 seed pack. The classic one to run through a veggie bed.

Did you know we also stock the Multiguard snail and slug pellets, David Grays snail pellets and a 4m snail barrier strip in store. None of those three are on the website, so give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what is on the shelf.

The sprays are in pest control and the seed and the rest of it is in the garden centre, where you're welcome to bring the chewed leaf in and ask what did it.

More from the garden

• Which garden insects are worth keeping around
• When a garden pest is worth spraying, and when it is not
• Pheromone traps, what they do and what we stock

I will stand in the garden at dusk waiting for the last bee to go home before I spray anything, which my family finds ridiculous and I am not sorry about it.

Candeece

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