Companions

This week in Sust. Ag has been all about companions and their roles in the farm. We have been looking at plants, weeds, insects, birds, and many more plants and animals to determine whether they are a pest or beneficial to the farm. I studied wasps and determined that they can be both a pest and beneficial to farms. Many people may not know this but wasps can play a vital role in farms. Wasps eat many insects such as caterpillars that eat plants and harm farms. Without wasps, farms would be crawling with pests that eat crops and degrade the farm overall. Wasps can also be considered pests, they sting and bother people trying to work. If this doesn't bother you, wasps should be present in you farm. To attract wasps to your farm, leave out food, specifically sweets and also make holes in logs for the wasps to live in. To discourage wasps, make sure that no food is left out, if wasps continue to be a problem, spray them with WD-40 (* ED. NOTE: not certified organic) and that should scare them away. Wasps are such an interesting insect because most people seem to dislike them but few people actually know how beneficial they can be on a farm and some of the great things they can do to keep a farm healthy. - charlie