Creative planting can create lokahi in the garden.

While we work to grow our ornamentals, fruits and vegetables, unfriendly insect populations can work against us by feeding on these blooming beauties.

Beneficial, or friendly, insects can help us create and maintain year-round balance and harmony in our gardens.

Chinese parsley, fennel and dill are among the plants known to attract "good bugs," such as lady beetles lacewings and essential pollinators.

At the University of Hawai'i's Urban Garden Center in Pearl City we see many lady beetles, which are known to gobble up to 50 unfriendly aphids a day. Our islands host several different species of lady beetles of various shapes and colors.

Aphids are soft-bodied insects that are small, rounded or pear-shaped. They extract plant sap from leaves, stems and roots, often causing stunting, wilting and deformed leaves. Controlling large populations of these insects from our plantings is critical because aphids can act as vectors in transmitting plant viruses, such as Banana Bunchy Top Virus and Papaya Ring Spot Virus.

Aphid infestations are commonly "tended" by ants, another unfriendly insect in the garden. Ants harvest a sweet honeydew that is excreted by aphids and can fend off lady beetles looking for a meal. By controlling the ants, the lady beetles can do their job more effectively.

Lady beetles are also known to eat scales, spider mites, mealybugs and almost any small insect, mite or insect egg.

Chinese parsley, fennel and dill, which are widely available in Hawai'i garden centers, grow in moist, well-drained soil. In addition to hosting lady beetles, these herbs are used in many island dishes.

Including keiki in your gardening chores is a wonderful way to learn about nature together. With a hand-held magnifying glass, you can talk to children about the lady beetle life cycle and detail how to be a "good bug" detective.

Lady beetles emerge from small yellow eggs that are laid on host plants. Small, black six-legged larva hatch between four and 10 days later. After feasting on "bad bugs" and increasing in size, the larva become very still and latch on to plant foliage. The adult lady beetle will emerge from this larva. It is, as keiki say, "coool" to watch the different stages.

Visit the Urban Garden Center in Pearl City, 955 Kamehameha Highway, to see all stages of the lady beetle life cycle. The Urban Garden Center is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Mondays through Fridays. For home garden questions, call the O'ahu Master Gardeners between 9 a.m. and noon Mondays through Fridays, 453-6055.

Jayme Grzebik is an urban horticulturist for the UH Cooperative Extension Service.