Think Twice Before Killing These Insects In Your Garden

When it comes to bugs in the garden, most people's natural instinct might be to get rid of them all! Insects need to be stopped, at all costs, from eating flowers and the beautiful bounty of the vegetable garden. However, think twice before applying any "kill-all" insecticide. While it is true that there are plenty of insects that are pests of the highest order, there is an equal amount that is the exact opposite.

There are many species of insects that are actually beneficial to gardens, orchards, and flower beds. The Old Farmer's Almanac splits these beneficial bugs into three categories: predators, pollinators, and parasitizers. Predators are those insects which prey upon pests by eating them. Pollinators feed on nectar and pollen, which are essential for plant pollination. Meanwhile, parasitizers like to infect areas with pests by laying their parasitic eggs alongside those of the pests. Once the parasite eggs hatch, they feast upon the pest larvae. 

That last one may sound gruesome, but it is all part of the ecosystem of the garden. And while some of the insects on this list are going to look aggressive and scary, they are all serving a higher purpose. That purpose is that the less pest-populated your garden is, the better it will be for you.

Honey bees are the most iconic of all pollinators and should be welcomed in any garden. Especially beneficial to flowering plants and fruit trees, honey bees will consume nectar and collect pollen. They will then fly around, spread pollen across the garden, and return to their hives to make delicious honey. They are an all-together fantastic package, which is why people have been beekeeping for over 9,000 years (via BBC).

Pollination is incredibly beneficial because it encourages the overall health of the garden. Regardless of whether or not vegetables are being grown for consumption or flowers for aesthetics, having honey bees around to pollinate plants is only going to be a benefit. And honey bees aren't the only buzzers welcome in the garden.

Bumblebees and other species will help pollinate numerous different plants, adding to the biodiversity of your yard. It is also worth noting that just because bees have the ability to bite and sting, it doesn't mean that they will. Though the buzzing of bees may elicit fear, especially from those who are allergic to their sting, it is very easy to call in professionals to have beehives relocated. Thankfully, most bees are not outwardly aggressive and will only sting if they feel threatened. Being polite to bees is a small price to pay in exchange for all of the good that they do.

The green lacewing provides a double-fronted benefit. It can be both predator and pollinator. As adults, these wide-winged insects act a lot like honey and bumblebees do. They feed on the pollen and nectar of plants, then proceed to share that pollen among the other plants, helping to create that healthy biodiversity that is so essential for the garden and the wider ecosystem.

On the predatory front, the green lacewing is a top-tier aphid eater. In their larval stage, green lacewings can eat upwards of 200 aphids in a single week (via Birds and Blooms). Once they have undergone their chrysalis transformation into adulthood, the green lacewing will continue to feast on the aphid eggs it finds on the underside of leaves. 

Though they may look somewhat creepy depending upon your bug inclinations, green lacewings don't do anything more aggravating than flying around people's heads every so often. As such, because they are so good at eating aphids and have such excellent pollinator capabilities, they should be a welcome sight in vegetable gardens, flower beds, and fruit orchards.

Spiders get a bad rep. No, really, they do. Though they look scary, and some of them have the ability to inflict serious harm, the vast majority of spiders want absolutely nothing to do with humans. They much prefer to feast upon the types of insects that everyone finds particularly pestilential. Therefore, spiders in the garden ought to be considered an extreme benefit.

Though technically arachnids and not insects, nearly everyone lumps spiders in with bugs. In the garden, spiders can play an amazing role in controlling the pest population. They are not interested in eating your vegetables because all spiders are carnivorous. Therefore, they will be eating the likes of aphids, mosquitoes, flies, caterpillars, and even rodents in some instances. All of the benefits that spiders bring to the garden might not be seen, but their presence can make for a garden with a lot fewer mosquitoes, and who doesn't want that?

So, if a spider has woven its web in the rose bushes or between tomato vines, leave it alone. Until harvesting season, these critters should be as welcome as a favorite family member and, therefore, not disturbed. 

Ground beetles is an all encompassing term for a large group of predatory beetles, all of whom are beneficial to the garden landscape. Their ranks include the likes of the bembidion, pterostichus, carabus, harpalus, and amara beetles. They pose absolutely no threat to food grown in gardens, the people who garden, or any kind of structure built in said garden. Instead, they are interested in only one thing: eating pests.

Ground beetles are hungry critters, and they are able to eat their fill by having an incredibly diverse diet. They will eat all of the following: caterpillars, nematodes, slugs, silverfish, weevils, and flies. One downside is that, depending on their size, ground beetles can sometimes be at risk of being eaten by others of their kind. This can end up being a problem for pest control. Overall, however, ground beetles serve as an asset as opposed to a problem.

Identifying ground beetles can be a little tricky, as they all look somewhat similar to one another. Ground beetles are typically brown, black, or metallic in sheen, though there are those that have more colorful presentations. They are typically flat, have large abdomens, and narrow heads with long antennae. They will also have pretty defined mandibles, which are what makes them so good at eating so many pests. So, make sure to identify what kind of beetle it is before deciding to crush it.

Also known as the aphid or gall midge, these small insects will do the job of controlling your aphid population in a jiffy. The problem arises not so much in their larval stage but when they become adults. See, adult aphid predators are mildly representative of mosquitoes. The only difference in their looks, really, is the fact that they don't have needle noses and instead have long, curling antennae. Unfortunately, this difference might not be noticed until the aphid predator is already crushed.

Still, it is the larvae of the aphid predator that do the most work. Noted for their bright orange color, the larvae of the aphid predator will eat over 60 different types of aphids and do so with lightning speed (via Planet Natural Research Center). They will take care of aphids faster than ladybugs and green lacewings combined, making for a really excellent midge to have in the garden.

Feeding primarily at night, the aphid predator larvae will stay in that stage for roughly two weeks before transforming into adults. The adults will then lay more eggs, and the cycle of aphid control continues. 

Let's face it: if there is one insect that can compete with the praying mantis in the looks department, it is the dragonfly. More than having mere looks on their side, dragonflies are considered by many to be the best insect hunters in all of nature. And unlike their robber fly cousins, dragonflies are able to strike a perfect balance between consuming beneficial insects, and those that are considered to be pests.

Dragonflies will eat lots of other flying insects, such as biting flies or gnats, mayflies, and especially mosquitoes. These bloodsuckers are a particular favorite of dragonflies. Alongside spiders, dragonflies are among the best natural defenses against mosquitoes. So, they should really be welcomed into the garden with open arms.

Since dragonflies lay their larvae in the water, adding a small water feature to your garden is going to be a great way to invite these majestic insects into your yard. And don't worry about the fact that mosquitoes lay their eggs in water, too. Dragonfly larvae eat the same diet they do as adults. So, regardless of their stage in life, they make for excellent mosquito killers.