Sweet alyssum, an unassuming garden flower with tiny white or purple blossoms, has the ability to bring powerful aphid assassins to gardens and farmers' fields. The flower grows so fast and attracts so many "good bugs" to lettuce fields that the number of pesky aphids is greatly reduced, according to a recent study funded by the UC Davis-based UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program and conducted by Bill Chaney, a UC entomology farm advisor in Salinas. Chaney, who has conducted preliminary experiments in lettuce fields in cooperation with UC Davis vegetable crops associate professor Louise Jackson and other UC researchers, says the sweet alyssum was the most effective of the plants tested in attracting beneficial insects. "We're using a small part of a grower's field as a non-crop plant insectary where beneficial insects can find food and shelter," Chaney says. If the alyssum makes up approximately 5 percent of the lettuce field, the beneficial insect population increases in the lettuce and aphids are suppressed, he explained. Aphids are a major lettuce pest in California coastal areas. "The impact has been seen as far as 45 to 50 feet away from the alyssum," Chaney says. "Using alyssum in an in-field insectary has great potential to help farmers reduce their use of pesticides."