What Kinds of Insects Does Lavender Attract?

Bees

• Bees are attracted to a wide variety of flowering plants including lavenders. Bees are crucial in the pollination process. As the bees stop to feed on the pollen in the flower they also collect it and then carry it on to other plants. This is a key step in the life cycle of flowering plants. Approximately 70 percent of the world's plant species rely on polinators like the bee.

Syrphid Flies

• While syrphid flies, or hover flies, are commonly mistaken for bees or wasps because of their black and yellow coloring, they are flies -- they have only single wings. Adult syrphids feed on nectar and pollen from flowering plants including lavender, while syrphid larvae feed primarily on aphids. Syrphids are used by California lettuce growers to control crop-destroying aphids.

Green Lacewing

• Green lacewing are thing green insects with sheer lace-like wings. They feed on nectar and pollen from plants including lavender, and lay their eggs on the foliage of the plants. The eggs hatch larvae and these larvae feed on other insects. During their development lacewing larvae will kill approximately 200 insects and/or insect eggs per week.

Parasitic Wasps

• Lavender also attracts parasitic wasps, which are beneficial to the plant because they kill garden pests. Parasitic wasps refer to a variety of bugs in different families that lay their eggs on or inside other insects. When these eggs hatch the larvae feed on their host killing them. While some parasitic wasps will choose any of a variety of insects as hosts for their hugs, some rely on a single variety of insect. Insects that are most commonly targeted by parasitic wasps include aphids, beetles and caterpillars.