Congratulations!! You have successfully gotten this far with your garden and things are looking pretty good! Plants are growing, fruit is being set, and you are wondering if maybe you have planted too many zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes. By chance or other means(chemical) you have successfully thwarted the bad bugs bent on ruining your hard work and you are truly enjoying the “Fruits” of your labor. Well done! As you have toiled in your garden or have been admiring it as it grows, you may have seen many of the “good bugs” of the garden. Little did you know they were voraciously eating the bad bugs. So, how do we encourage these good bugs? What do they look like? What are their needs? Can we use a combination of chemicals and good bugs? Relax, get an iced tea and we will begin to sort this stuff out.
First, let us discuss chemical pesticides. All chemical pesticides have some level of risk. The National Pesticide Information Center explains how the danger level of pesticides depends on the level of toxicity multiplied by how much exposure occurs. Additionally, it is important to know when to apply the pesticide and effectiveness on the insect you are dealing with. So, the first and most obvious benefit to using these insects is not having to resort to chemical pesticides. Let nature handle it! It is free, you don’t have to expose yourself to chemicals during mixing and application, good bugs know what they are doing and do it very effectively and you can eat your vegetables right out of the garden without chemical contamination. Plus, and this is a big plus, chemical pesticides don’t only wipe out the bad bugs. They are just as deadly to the good bugs. This is bad for the long-term maintenance of your garden as there won’t be a population of natural predators to feed on the pests. Pesticides may be effective at wiping out of the first wave of pests, but the same cannot be said for the second wave. Did I mention FREE, beneficial bugs are there to stay if you are able to build an environment for them to thrive in. You might not even have to spend money if the beneficial insects are native to your area. Finally, there is a growing concern about insects becoming resistant to pesticides. Research has shown that a number of insects are starting to show greater resistance to chemical pesticides. According to the Pesticide Action Network, between 500 and 1,000 insect and weed species have developed resistance to pesticide since 1945.
Now let’s get into the nitty gritty. I will begin by posing this riddle… All bugs are insects, but not all insects are bugs. Many of the “good bugs” are members of several different families. So, we talked about the top ten bad bugs, here are the top predatory “bugs” and their families. As with the bad bugs, I will highlight what they eat and how to attract them to your garden.
Mantids – We know them as praying mantis. They are what is called an ambush predator. They sit and wait until some delectable meal passes by. They eat anything they can catch. Dill, fennel, marigolds, and cosmos will attract them to your garden area. The one you commonly see is the Chinese mantis. It is not native. The native mantis is the Carolina Mantis and is brownish grey.
True bugs – This group gives new meaning to a slurpy. This family, Hemiptera, have piercing straw like mouthparts. They pierce the prey, inject enzymes which digest the insides of the prey, and then they suck it out. Just like a slurpy! This group has the best names as well. Minute pirate bugs, Assassin bugs, walking sticks, ambush bugs, and wheel bugs. All these bugs can inflict a painful bite, especially the wheel bug, so be careful when encountering these insects. This family like to dine on cucumber beetles, potato beetles, aphids, and stink bugs. Dill, fennel, coriander, mints, and goldenrods will attract these to your garden.
Lacewings/Net-wing- This family, Neuroptera, undergoes complete metamorphosis. In some cases, the larva and adults are deadly. In others, it is the larva that do all the damage. The brown and green lacewing are the most common ones we will see in our gardens. The larva are extremely effective predators, especially on aphids. However, there is a fly that belongs in this group, called a mantid fly. It is a combination praying mantis and fly. It hunts at night and is an ambush predator. Antlions as the name indicates, eat ants. The larva burrows into the ground and ambushs ants with its pincers as they pass by. Coriander, fennel, dill, tansy, and sunflowers will attract this group to your garden.
Beetles – This group, coleoptera, has the largest number of “good bugs” and “bad bugs” of any group. Soldier beetles, ground beetles, tiger beetles, lady beetles (ladybugs), fireflies, rove beetles, and soft wing flower beetles all are outstanding predators of the bad bugs. Both the adult and larva are predatory in most of these groups. Both adults and larva consume the eggs, larva, and even adults of their prey. The larva can be found in the ground, on the ground, or on plant material. In North America, there are 450 species of lady beetles alone.
Zinnia, goldenrod, mint, parsley, cosmos, perennials, compost will attract these beetles to your garden. Some beetles will eat slugs and snails. Some will eat grasshoppers and other larger insects. Even the larva of the “good bugs” will attack aphids, mites, and thrip.
So, as you can see, it is wise to select a wide variety of “host” plants that will attract the “good bugs”. Interspersed these plants in your garden and along the edges. The “good bugs” will be attracted to these plants and will then dine on the “bad bugs” that might be doing damage to fruits and vegetables growing in your garden. So, as you can see, there are many good bugs at your disposal. All you have to do is entice them into your garden and let them do what they do best, eat!
