Good Bugs for Your Garden

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Most people who have gardens are those who have taken up interest in cultivating the soil. It is both hard work and dirty work, pun intended. It offers multifarious benefits to people like improving a person’s well-being by providing a sense of accomplishment and teaching patience as they pick up shovels, dig up soil, and meticulously sow seeds and plants. However, this patience is often put to a test once their labour of love becomes infested by pests. But not all insects are detrimental to your garden; there are actually several helping hands in your war versus garden nuisances.

Whether you are new to this hobby or you have an existing garden that is now subjected to pesky pests, you ought to familiarize yourself with your enemy – keeping your friends close, but your enemies closer. Pests can be found in several forms: plants, fungi, insects, and animals such as cats and birds. For gardeners, they are very undesirable because they destroy the garden aesthetically and affect the growth of the crop.

Grass and moss, for instance, crowd out the foliage, disturb the soil, stunt the growth, and can be an eyesore. A large group of Aphids, deemed as the most destructive garden insect, suck the sap of the crop, in the end destroying the flora. Spider mites, on the other hand, suck leaf contents which in turn lead to loss of leaves and worse, loss in fruit trees. Another pest that feed on leaves is the slug which also devours ripening fruits and vegetables. Ants, too, contribute to the pillage in your garden by eating seedlings.

Now that you have an idea of what you might be dealing with, you can zero in on the weaknesses of the garden pests. Although this may seem like you are at a disadvantage, do not lose heart because you also have on your side an army of insects. Not only do they prey on garden pests, they can also aid you in tending your garden.

Aphid Midges

First on the roster of your best buds would be Aphid midges, whose larvae prey on sixty species of garden enemy number one.

Braconid Wasps

Adult female Braconid wasps, on the other hand, kills moths, beetles, larvae, and aphids by injecting eggs on the host insects where their larvae grows and feeds, in turn, kills the pests.

Lady Beetles

Adult lady beetles also feed on aphids, mites, and their hungry larvae do even more damage to garden pests.

Ground Beetles

Ground beetles are a type of beetle that preys on pestering slugs, snails, earthworms, and cabbage maggots. Its larvae have a massive appetite, as one larva can eat as much as fifty caterpillars.

Minute Pirate Bugs

Fast-moving minute pirate bugs are one of the best bugs for your garden. Its appetite knows no bounds since it does not matter what it eats because it will attack almost any insect in its way.

Bees

Bees are pollinators and without them flowers and fruits would have limited thriving. So attract as much bees as you want to help in the growth of your garden.

So, attract as much as you can of these friendly-neighbourhood insects and you now have the leverage and greater chances to win the war against garden pests.