Beneficial Insects: Not All Bugs are Bad
(Page 2 of 8)
April/May 1995
By John Vivian
Spare the rod
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Not All Bugs Are Pests
I don't know why most humans are naturally repelled by most spiders and insects. Butterflies are pretty and ladybugs are unthreatening, but the hard, jointed external skeletons and multiple appendages of less compatible kinds are so nightmarish—so unlike ourselves, I guess. Baby chicks and ducklings are soft and fuzzy. Toads and frogs and salamanders are kind of Kermit-cute. Most mammals are appealing, especially the young with their big eyes. But a newhatched baby spider has a half dozen eyes, eight hairy little legs, and a full compliment of palps, mandibles, and fangs. A baby butterfly is a caterpillar—second cousin to a fishing worm.
But, we should resist the natural impulse to step on every bug we come across no matter how ugly (and, even though insects are man's greatest competitor for the products of field, pasture, and orchard). In a natural setting, animal, bird, and bug predators keep plant eaters more or less under control. Kill a bug and you are most likely squishing one of the predator insects that tend to be more conspicuous than the leaf-grazing and sap-sucking insects that do crop damage. And, every predator counts—especially in the monoculture of farm or garden. Natural predator-to-prey ratios are keyed to normal prey populations in a natural mix of plants. There are many fewer predators than prey and the hunters need their all-natural strength of numbers to counter a typical population of, say aphids. They need added help if a combination of weather, prior year's hatch, and other imponderables combine to produce a blossoming of asexual female aphids that (without benefit of males) can produce enough clones to suck your sweet pea vines dry in less than a week.
Here is some of what I've learned over the years about how "good bugs" keep garden pests honest. And I have another admission to make ...but it's one I'm proud of. Once those barn spiders taught me the effectiveness of natural controls, I never again used harsh chemical insecticides. Not that I haven't lost my share of radishes to root weevils, tomatoes to blossomend rot, and corn to smut and borers. But, I just set seed a little earlier or a little later, or a little deeper or shallower, a little farther spaced or closer together, and I always plant extra for the normal pest population. And that's the secret—keeping pest populations normal as you can, and encouraging natural predators to help out.
THE BUMBLE BEE
A famed pollinator, the bumble is actually too short-tongued to reach
many blossoms.
Pollinators
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