5 Beneficial Bugs for Your Garden
We spend a lot of our time as gardeners trying to protect our crops from pest populations, but there are some insects that you may want to keep around. Everyone probably knows how valuable bees are to your garden, but they’re not the only beneficial garden insects. Beneficial garden insects are so helpful to have around because they serve important functions like eating other pest insects and their eggs and larvae. Let’s look at some of these good insects and why you want them around.
Bees
No list of beneficial garden insects would be complete without a mention of bees. They might have a harsh sting, but if you allow them to do their thing, they will cross-pollinate your flowers to enable more flowers (and vegetables) to grow. These are some of the best insects to have in and around your garden and they’re so good for the environment.
Ladybugs
Ladybugs, (also known as lady beetles) feed on the insects that would damage your crops, including aphids, mealybugs, and other destructive pests.
Ground beetles
Don’t worry that every beetle is bad for your garden. There are actually some beneficial ones like the ground beetle. These are larger, more voracious predators. They will go after slugs and snails, cutworms, and cabbage maggots in your garden’s soil.
Soldier beetles are also a good thing for your garden. They are most beneficial in late summer when there are a lot of aphids around. The soldier beetle larva helps rid the garden of aphids as well as other predatory insect eggs, treating them at the source before they even hatch.
Green lacewings
Both adult lacewings and their larvae will eat pesky aphids, caterpillars, and other garden pests. These natural predators are good for your garden because they get rid of pests that can harm your plants. Sometimes they will take nectar from flowers but they won’t eat your plants or cause any harm to them, so they’re another good insect to have around.
Spiders
OK, they are not technically an insect, but worth mentioning here. First, they help control the population of unwanted insects, such as flies, mosquitoes, moths, and wasps, which helps prevent you from getting stung in your garden, and the drop in the number of these insects also prevents your plants from being eaten by these insects. Spiders are definitely friends of the garden.
