Beneficial Insects for Your Garden: Bugs to Help Control Pests

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A delicate insect, the green lacewing feeding on pollen or nectar gives no clue as to the voracious appetite of its larvae, which make one of the best garden predators in existence for aphids, spider mites, mealybugs, leafhoppers, thrips, or even corn earworm and other caterpillar eggs.
A delicate insect, the green lacewing feeding on pollen or nectar gives no clue as to the voracious appetite of its larvae, which make one of the best garden predators in existence for aphids, spider mites, mealybugs, leafhoppers, thrips, or even corn earworm and other caterpillar eggs.
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A Nematode worm investigating the back of a meal mite. Some 80,000 species of Nematode are known.
A Nematode worm investigating the back of a meal mite. Some 80,000 species of Nematode are known.
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Ladybugs, who may be responsible for the entire concept of biological pest control.
Ladybugs, who may be responsible for the entire concept of biological pest control.
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Green lacewing larva, disguised in plant debris camouflage.
Green lacewing larva, disguised in plant debris camouflage.
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When the plant debris camouflage is removed, the green lacewing larva's bizarre appearance is revealed.
When the plant debris camouflage is removed, the green lacewing larva's bizarre appearance is revealed.
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Tiger beetles can grow up to an inch long and feed on many other kinds of insects and spiders.
Tiger beetles can grow up to an inch long and feed on many other kinds of insects and spiders.
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A Tachnid fly resting on a summer squash flower. They are among the most important North American pest-control parasite.
A Tachnid fly resting on a summer squash flower. They are among the most important North American pest-control parasite.
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A wasp eating cabbage-moth larva. Their size (often over one inch long) and their bright, contrasting markings make them hard to miss.
A wasp eating cabbage-moth larva. Their size (often over one inch long) and their bright, contrasting markings make them hard to miss.

Look around any natural garden–that is, any ecosystem undisturbed by human intervention–and what do you see? Are all the plants devastated by insect infestations? Are gophers the only surviving life forms? With the exception of climatic extremes such as deserts and arctic glaciers, wouldn’t you expect to see a variety of life, from plants to insects, birds, and animals, coexisting?

The answers are, “no,” “of course not,” and “well, I certainly hope so!” Nature works in harmony with itself. The food chain follows a hierarchy: plants, plant eaters, and finally, plant-eater eaters. If one category is troubled, the whole system is affected. Not enough plants and the plant eaters starve; not enough plant eaters and the plant-eater eaters go hungry; not enough plant-eater eaters and the population of plant eaters expands until they eat up all the plants. A simple, yet easily disrupted balance.

So it is in your garden. By now you may have come to realize that you are not the only plant eater involved. There are plenty of others eager to get their share. So how does nature handle the problem? Of course–more plant-eater eaters!

Unless your garden has been saturated with poisonous chemicals, chances are that at any given moment scores of plant-eater eaters, or predators, are at work. Cats are catching mice, birds are devouring caterpillars, ladybugs are gobbling up aphids, and lacewings are munching on a variety of bugs. One of the best things you can do for your garden is to encourage this natural system. You can even help nature along by introducing beneficials into the garden.

  • Published on Apr 1, 1992
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