CONNELL, Franklin County — Organic farmer Brad Bailie is a believer in bugs.
Strips of blooming plants in a maze of colors — from blue bachelor buttons to white yarrow — dot his 600-acre farm north of Connell. They border fields of potatoes, onions, shallots, primitive heritage wheat varieties spelt and einkorn, and camelina.
In each strip, insects from wasps to flies and lady bugs search for plant-damaging insects or larvae to eat.
Next to one strip is a long patch with green timothy and orchard grass and fescue jutting out from tufts of dead grass — a "beetle bank" that provides year-round protection for ground beetles that dine on other insects and weed seeds.
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