After spending hours on end toiling in the garden, watching pests devour your flowers and crops can be devastating. While it’s easy enough to get out the insecticide to get rid of garden bugs, many gardeners are looking for a more eco-friendly way to deal with nasty pests. It can be better for your garden and the environment to let nature battle itself to save your plants and flowers.
There is a long list of bugs that are known as garden saviors. These bugs and their larvae can help to rid your plants of the insects that are eating your precious plants. Purchasing helpful insects to release into your crops is an ecologically responsible and affordable option to ensure garden health.
Not every bug that you spot on your plants is there to harm. Some insects like the Sphinx Moth can take on the harmful pests in your garden and send them packing without being forced to turn to a chemical solution. Let’s take a closer look at a few of the bugs that can be great for your garden.
Ladybugs
Everyone, including gardeners, have a special place in their hearts for ladybugs. The ladybug or lady beetle larvae can do a fantastic job of ridding your garden of harmful pests. Ladybugs love to eat aphids, mites, and mealybugs. While some bug larvae do all the work in the garden, adult and juvenile ladybugs have big appetites. While ladybugs are generally recognizable, their larvae look like small colorful alligators, so you should learn to spot them in the garden and let them do their job.
Ground Beetles
The startling metallic bodies of ground beetles can look just as fantastic as their appetites. Let them pass and get to work if you come across these green demons in your garden. The larvae of the ground beetle develop underground and love to eat slugs, cutworms, and root maggots. If you spot a brightly colored ground beetle in the garden, you can assume that they have laid some of their powerful eggs that will help to rid the area of pests once they hatch into larvae.
Stink Bugs
Some Stink Bugs can be a pest in your garden, but the Predatory Stink Bug variety can be a helpful warrior. The spined soldier predatory Stink bug primarily feeds on sawfly larvae, caterpillars, and dirt grubs. Stink bugs are easily identifiable by their shield-like body shape and their pungent odor when disturbed.
Sphinx Moth
While many moths can damage your crops, the Sphinx Moth is one that you should be glad to see. Once the caterpillars turn into adult moths, the Sphinx is a wonderful pollinator for your garden. They quickly pick up your plant’s pollen on their barbed legs and help to spread it around to other plants.
Green Lacewings
This lovely variety of flying bugs can be a great defender of the garden. The adults of this delicate species mainly feed on pollen and nectar, but their larvae can benefit your garden and help rid it of harmful pests. Green lacewing larvae are Aphid Lions due to their voracious appetite for tiny pests. They can rid your garden of aphids and other soft-bodied pests in no time.
If you are worried about harming your more delicate plants and the environment by using insecticides on your plants, you may want to try a more natural strategy. Using bugs to battle bugs is an organic way to create a balanced ecosystem within your garden and protect your plants from damaging pests.
