Healthy backyards can rely on natural predators instead of chemical pesticides to keep certain pest populations under control. Birds (like owls and hawks), bats, lizards, lady beetles, and praying mantises all play roles in balancing local populations and can be welcome addidtions to your homes. Creating habitat for predators is simple: provide shelter such as native shrubs, brush piles, or nesting boxes. Avoid broad-spectrum pesticides that can kill both pests and their beneficial hunters. If a rat or an insect is eating a pesticide, a beneficial predator who finds the dead animal could eat it and poison themselves, making the pest population even more likely to grow. 

This approach turns a yard into a living food web rather than a managed battlefield. Encouraging natural predators not only improves garden health but also protects local waterways and pollinators from pesticide exposure, keeping the backyard safe for people and wildlife alike. This method is the current reccomendation by wildlife experts to help keep the local ecosystem in balance.