Manage Insects On Your Farm

Manage Insects On Your Farm, subtitled A Guide to Ecological Strategies is a book published by SARE (Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education), written by Miguel A. Altieri and Clara I. Nicholls with Marlene A. Fritz.
Somewhere between conventional farming, organic and biodynamic farming is the practice outlined in this book called Ecologically Based Pest Management (EBPM). It consists of a below ground and above ground practice that leads to great soil health which in turn leads to crop health. It is a terrific guide for utilizing beneficial insects to help manage crop pests. This book in its entirety can be found on line at: http://www.sare.org/publications/insect/insect.pdf.
The book discusses the use of the appropriate cover crops as a means of preventing erosion, improving soil, fixing nitrogen and attracting beneficial insects. It also provides examples of farmers who have instituted the practice of EBPM on their farm and how it has impacted their crops in a positive way. It explains how using biological control, natural enemies called beneficial insects can prevent or delay outbreaks of insects, nematodes, weeds and plant diseases. It also has a small section where Zach Berkowitz, a California vineyard consultant discusses the importance of cover crops in a vineyard.

On pages 50-53 (PDF pages 60-63) of the publication, there is a very nice gallery of photos of beneficial insects. Learning to recognize these good bugs as well as bad bugs is key to having healthy plants. This is a very good publication and since it is online, I highly recommend checking it out!