Good ways to attract ladybirds/lacewings/hoverflies etc

I'm going to be interested in this too!

 

Infest your plants with greenfly.:D

 

grow plenty of flowers. also have a patch on Nettles perhaps in a container. the cheapest way to attract these creatures is to collect dead and dry umbellifer stems which are hollow and tie them up into groups of ten and lay in hedges or shrubs. the insects will have somewhere to roost. a shallow pool filled with mud will assist hoverflies in laying eggs (They like stagnant water) so you will have an annual supply of Hoverflies. Do plant umbellifers as they are certainly a good food source. Lupins will attract blackfly and in turn hoverflies and allied species.

 

I once had a huge overgrown santolina-it was far too big and woody, but chock-full of ladybirds as was the ivy. I cut them both back in an attempt to claim back the garden the first year we moved in-I deeply regret doing this, I should have learned to live with them the way they were because I haven`t seen too many since.