If you’re the squeamish type, take a deep breath and think of the things that creep, crawl, slither, slide and flit among the plants in your garden as your friends.
“I have read that most insects are helpful or benign, as much as 90 percent of them,” Colleen Golden, senior horticulturist at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, said recently. “It may seem that many more than 10 percent of the insects out there are pests, but I think that is because we’re looking for them and also attracting them by growing plants they enjoy eating. Also, many of them are small and inconspicuous, so an untrained eye would have a hard time noticing them.”
As a result, she suspects that most people who see any bug in the garden automatically assume that it is “bad” or harming their plants.
To help you tell the difference between the good guys and bad guys, here’s a selection of eight pairs of good bug-bad bug look-a-likes.
In the garden, the good bugs don’t wear white hats, the bad bugs black hats. This infographic from homesteadbackyard.com may help you decide who stays in Dodge City and who ends up on Boot Hill.
When you find insects in your garden, your first instinct might be to destroy them, but that’s not always the best course of action. Some insects are destructive and should be controlled, but of the more than 1.5 million known insect species in the world, more than 97 percent are beneficial to gardens, or simply benign. That leaves less than three percent that are agricultural and nuisance pests.
What good bugs do
Beneficial insects perform vital functions in the environment. More than 75 percent of crops and an equal amount of flowering plants rely on animals to distribute pollen, and most that perform this task are insects. Bees, butterflies, moths and even beetles and flies pollinate plants. Every year in the U.S., honeybees alone pollinate about $15 billion in crops.
Insects also perform the important tasks of aerating soil, breaking down dead materials and returning them to the earth, and serving as food for wildlife. Some insects, such as ladybird beetles and green lacewings, also eat harmful pests, which helps to keep the environment in balance.
So, say hello to the good bugs and goodbye to the bad bugs!
Related: 12 Bugs You Should Never Kill – TUTORING YOU
Discover more from TUTORING YOU
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
