Study Of Insects - Bugs In The Garden © 2007

A study of insects in the average garden would reveal a great variety of different bugs. Insects fulfill many different roles in the garden, some beneficial, some destructive and some insects do a little of both.

Among the beneficials in the garden you will find lady bugs, butterflies, bees, wasps, preying mantis. Another bug which is really not an insect but which is beneficial is the spider. Each of these insects has a different lifestyle and so benefits or harms the garden in many different ways.

Butterflies and bees help pollinate the flowers, assuring seed set, as they forage among the flowers for nectar. Wasps feed on plant pests like the cabbage worm caterpillar. Spiders eat a great variety of pests in garden. Very few spiders in North America are poisonous, and these types aren’t generally found in the garden. Preying mantis also feed on many different kinds of insect pests and their presence should be encouraged.

The destructive insects are many. Cabbage butterflies, aphids, whiteflies, leaf miners, potato bugs are just a few. Their eating, sucking and disease carrying traits cause many problems in the garden.

Cabbage butterflies feed mainly on plants in the cabbage family. Flower gardeners need only concern themselves with the damage these insects can cause to the ornamental cabbages and kales which are grown. Aphids cause a great deal of damage as they suck the juices from young and growing plants. Whiteflies also suck plant juices. Leaf miners burrow under the leaf and though in normal numbers they don’t really hurt the plant, their burrowing in the leaf cause unsightly blemishes. Potato bugs are mainly a problem in the vegetable garden, but can cause problems for ornamental peppers or tomatoes which may be planted among the flowers.

Insects which may cause both good and bad in the garden include ants and wasps. Ants can help the garden by helping to break down decaying plant matter and their burrowing can help aerate the soil. But some species cultivate aphids and others may damage plant roots.

Flowers don’t suffer as much depredation from insects as the vegetable crops do, but there are still many problems caused by bugs.

Ants
Antfarm article
Butterfly
Firefly
Lady Bug

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