There ’s an old garden say : Plant it andtheywill add up . Theycome crawling , flee , jump , burrowing , and walking to the counter we have make in our landscape gardens . Their number are staggering ; it ’s estimated that at any given clip there are10 quintillion(that ’s a spate of cypher – 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 ) insects living on earth . Sometimes I believe that most of them have travel down the footpath to my garden .
Fortunately , the sound newsis that out of the 800,000 – 1,000,000 coinage of insects that have been identified / distinguish so far , not more than 1,000 ( about 1/10 of 1 % ) can be regard as serious pests , and less than 10,000 ( about 1 % ) are even occasional or sporadic pestilence . This 1 % give the bulk of the insects in the garden a bad name . The remaining 99 % are either harmless or good . The harmless insects impart a small colour and diversity to the garden without jeopardize our plant . The good insects pollinate our flowers or eat pest . However , at some point , bad bugs will show up in the garden , usually accompany by raft and lots of hungry friends . Some insects bore into source , come , or stems . Many give suck magnanimous measure of plant sap . Others destroy plants and crops by chew on the succulent foliage , stems , or fruits . lend to the challenge , some insect , such as the cuke mallet , transmit disease that can be fatal to plants .
As frustrating as an worm infestation can be to a nurseryman , insects perform many activities good to our garden and to the environment . Insects are an crucial germ of food for many creature , including shuttlecock , Pisces , and frog . Insects are lively as pollinators , and pollenation is essential for most food crop and blossoming plants . Many insects are important predators of pests in our backyard gardens . Part of the reasonableness many other louse do n’t become pests is because there are good insect in the surround prevent an plague . Also , insects play a critical part in recycling and decimate waste materials , which assist keep dirt healthy .
Good bug or Bad Bug ?
In the world of nature , an insect isneither honorable nor bad . Each insect has an essential role in keep a healthy and balanced ecosystem . As gardeners , however , we do n’t always see the complete picture . We typically define an insect as expert or big harmonize to whether or not the insect assists us in meeting our human goals .
Is it a good hemipteran or a bad bug ? Well , it all depends . I am delighted when I see an assassinator bug stalking a love apple hornworm caterpillar on one of my prized heirloom tomato works . On the other bridge player , a butterfly enthusiast mention an assassin bug attacking a caterpillar in a butterfly garden may have a different perspective . It ’s also a interrogative sentence of the right germ in the right place . If I mow over a nest of yellow crown WASP buried in the lawn in mid August and get attacked by a zillion infelicitous burn warrior , I tend to forget that wasp are an friend . Their appetite for reducing the identification number of fly does n’t seem all that important .
One of the big challenges of the garden is to key out the expert guys from the bad guy cable so that you’re able to gauge how the “ war ” against the bad guys is run in your landscape . Who are the full guy that engage war on the bad Guy in the landscape ?
The good guys or good insects consist ofthree ( 3 ) category : predators , parasitoids , andpollinators , a.k.a the3 Ps .
Predatorseat other worm . Examples of predators admit the gentlewoman beetle ( genus Hippodamia convergens ) , assassin bug ( Redruviidaye ) , damsel bug ( Nabidae ) , big - eyed bug ( Lygaeidae ) and unripened lacewing larvae . Two very crucial mathematical group of piranha that that are not insects include spiders and mite . Spiders are very effective piranha that are general feeders . They are often demolish because multitude fear being bite . Although many spiders sting humans and other animals , they do so for aegis , not for solid food . Parasitoidsare insects that lie orchis in or on other insect , resulting in the death of the master of ceremonies insect . Examples of parasitoids include many wasps such as the Thichogramma white Anglo-Saxon Protestant ( Trichogrammatidae ) . Withoutpollinators , fruits and vegetables and the output of seed would be greatly reduced . The best - known pollinator is the honeybee , but our garden also benefit from other aboriginal pollinators such as humblebee and A. E. W. Mason bees . It is estimated that some400 different speciesof bee reside in Virginia . In addition , adult parasitic dirt ball such as humble white Anglo-Saxon Protestant flow on pollen and nectar and are also deal to be pollinator . And allow ’s not forget butterflies and moths .
The following are just a few of the more common salutary and forged hemipteran I encounter each class in my garden .
Good Guys :
The Praying Mantisis one of the easiest insects to recognize and is an indiscriminate predatory animal . You would not guess by looking at it , but the swizzle stick - thin mantis is a voracious eater and is not fussy about what it capture and chuck . It uses those “ praying ” hand to pin down its victim and then rip up it animated with its powerful mouth .
TheAssassin Bugis a great good example of a creepy - looking bug that is harmless to you ( if you leave it alone ) and good for your garden . It quash its prey in a especially inventive — albeit ghastly — manner . Like a moving-picture show hit man , the bravo bug is equip with a specialty - killing instrument . Projecting from its oral sex is a long skewer ( the entomologic term is “ snout ” ) that is part suction tube and part syringe . The assassin bug utilise this rostrum to come in a venom which first immobilizes its victim and then liquefies its victim ’s interior — which the bravo bug then sucks out !
Ladybug . Everybody loves ladybugs . Both the grownup and the larvae eat other insects that we do n’t handle to have around our gardens . Ladybugs are especially fond of the aphids that care to wreck our Crape Myrtle tree .
TheLacewing Flyiseasy to key out because of its tenacious , translucent wing . grownup feed only on nectar , pollen , and aphid honeydew , but the larva are active predatory animal that consume the egg and immature degree of many insect pests include aphids , wanderer hint , and mealybug
Distinctive strand of nut are a indisputable mansion that lacewing are on obligation in your garden . The lacewing put its eggs on foresightful duds that seem to burgeon forth from a leaf so that piranha ca n’t eat them .
Damsel Bugsare dim brown , tan , or gray with minute bodies that measure about ¼ ” long . demoiselle bugs help control aphids , asparagus beetle , cabbage worm , wanderer mites , and whitefly , and have been watch over feasting on Colorado potato mallet eggs and larvae .
Hover or Syrphid Fliesresemble flyspeck wasps , with a inglorious - and - yellow- or white - striped abdomen . They will linger like a hummingbird as they drink nectar from heyday . Adults lay out in size from ¼ ” to ½ ” . Hover tent flap are important pollinator and predators . They help control aphid , chou worms , and mealybug . Do n’t panic – hover flies are honest flies and do n’t sting like bees or wasps . They belong to in the fly front home Syrphidae and some folks mention to them as syrphid fly . Hover flies are the gentle gents of the garden . According to Cornell University , a hover fly larva can consume up to400 aphidsbefore it becomes an adult fly . They really are a nurseryman ’s friend .
Parasitoid Waspsrange in size of it from a scrap of pepper to about 3 inches . They have slender , elongate feeler and are found throughout Virginia . These tiny , non - edged wasps are know to parasitize over 200 species of pests and may be the gardener ’s most important biological control method acting . Although there are gobs of unlike coinage of parasitic wasps , they all work by prey upon one or more pest insect . Depending on the species of parasitic white Anglo-Saxon Protestant , they help oneself rid your garden of : aphids , beetle larvae , bagworms , cabbage worms , Colorado potato beetle , corn earworms , cucumber beetles , cutworms , gypsy moth cat , Nipponese beetles , leaf miners , mealybugs , Mexican noggin beetle , moth caterpillars , sawfly larvae , scale , squelch vine woodborer , collapsible shelter caterpillars , tobacco plant budworms , tomato hornworms , and whiteflies .
Parasitoid wasps are verysensitive to insecticide , so keep off or limit the use of chemical sprays . Most adults eat on plant fluids and sugar , so offer flowering plant life that supply nectar sources . The skilful nectar sources are prime with wide or shallow corollas that let the wasps to easily reach nectar ; member of the carrot ( umbelliferae ) and cabbage ( cruciferae ) families are example of good nectar origin . Plants with floral nectary ( nectar - develop secreter ) are also important sources of food , as are aphids and other honeydew - producing sucking insect . plant life that cater shade on blistering summer day are a big help to parasitoids . Trichogramma wasps and those that attack scale worm , obscenity flies , aphids , and other worm can be purchased commercially for release , but it ’s important to procure the right species to control the pest you have .
Tachinid Flies(family Tachinidae ) are by far the tumid and most important group of parasitical flies , with over 1,300 species in North America . All coinage are bloodsucking in the larval stage and many are important natural enemies of major gadfly . Many species of tachinids have been inclose into North America from their aboriginal land to inhibit populations of alien pests . Tachinid flies differ in gloss , size , and shape , but many somewhat resemble houseflies . They ordinarily are gray , smutty , or undress , and often have many distinct abdominal bristle . Their bodies measure anywhere from 1/3 ” to ¾ ” . Tachinid fell larvae attack many unlike caterpillars , Colorado potato beetle , corn earworms , cucumber vine beetles , cutworms , Japanese beetles , and squash hemipteron . Many resemble house flies in size and people of color . They have robust bodies ; are commonly gray , black , or striped in gloss ; and have stalwart , haired bristles protruding from the tip of the abdomen . The feather - legged fly is bright orange with a velvety black head and thorax ; dark legs ( hind legs have a interference fringe of poor , black hairs ) ; yellow feet ; large , dark-brown eyes ; and brown and black offstage . Tachinid flies are retrieve throughout the garden and landscape and are frequently misguided for house fly . Feather - legged fly front is commonly found in the garden laying picket , oval eggs on the side of squash racquets bugs . Istocheta aldrichi , may be seen in lawns and shrubbery attaching eggs to the thorax of freshly - emerged adult Japanese beetle . The most obvious sign of tachinid tent-fly activity may the presence of oblong , blank eggs glued to the top of the head or organic structure of a host insect . Most adult tachinid rainfly feed on nectar and pollen , specially from flower umbelliferous plants such as carrot , dill , and other herbs ; composite flowers such as asters and rudbeckias ; and other inflorescence plants . They also eat on aphid honeydew melon , so having non - crop flora infested with aphids will support tachinid flies .
Ground Beetles . There are C of kinds of ground beetle , and most eat other insect . Both adult and green solid ground beetles are vulture and they feast on caterpillars , cutworms , root maggots , spider , snails , slugs , hint , and other beetles . They can be found under logs and detritus . solid ground beetles are indeed another Quaker found in our garden .
Starter List of Bad Guys :
Tomato Hornwormsare vulgar caterpillars in the garden and landscape . They can be find out feeding on tomato plant , Irish potato , and eggplants . They are called hornworms because they have a “ horn - like ” stern . Tomato hornworms are immense Caterpillar and will become sphinx moth .
There are many rude enemy of the love apple hornworm . Various universal predatory insects such as noblewoman beetle and immature lacewings often feed upon the testis stage and on young caterpillars . Another significant predator is the theme wasp , Polistesspp . This coarse wasp provender on many type of caterpillars , include those establish in gardens .
Tomato hornworms are also parasitized by a number of insects . One of the most common is a modest braconid white Anglo-Saxon Protestant , Cotesia congregatus . Larvae that hatch from wasp egg lay on the hornworm provender on the interior of the hornworm until the wasp is ready to pupate . The cocoon appear as white projections protruding from the hornworm ’s consistence . If such projection are observed , the hornworms should be leave in the garden to permit the adult wasps to come forth . When these wasps issue from their cocoons , they will defeat the hornworms and then try out other hornworms to parasitize .
Cabbage Loopersare another common cat . Cabbage loopers approach cabbages and other appendage of the chou phratry such as Brussels sprout , broccoli , and Brassica oleracea botrytis . Cabbage inchworm adult are nocturnal moths with a 1½ ” annexe span . They have mottled , grayish - dark-brown wings with a small silvery white fig 8 in the middle of each of the front wing . Eggs are creamy bloodless , aspirin - shaped and about the size of a peg head . Eggs are easily seen and most often laid on the underside of the lower leaves . The caterpillars are pale green with minute white-hot line be given down each side . Since cabbage looper caterpillars have no legs in their middle section , they have a characteristic looping motion as they move across vegetation , impart them the name cabbage loopers . Full uprise cat are about 1½ ” in duration .
The cabbage looper has many enemies that are both native to our area and of course hap in our garden . These enemy include predators such as paper wasps , and parasitic flies and wasp , for example , the epenthetic wasp , Cotesia glomerata .
Some wasps and flies parasitize the caterpillars while others attack the pupa . As the wasp or fly train within the cat or pupa , they eventually kill their host . Some wasps also parasitize the ballock of these caterpillar pests . These wasp and tent flap parasites are small and do not sting or burn hoi polloi .
aphid . Most mature aphid are about 1/8″ farsighted and are yellow or idle unripened . A few are black , brown , white , grey , or sunglasses of Red River . Aphids may be winged or wingless . Each aphid has six thin legs , two antennae on the head , a duad of tubes on the back , and a slight “ beak ” which is pushed into plants to fellate sap . Most aphids prefer to feed on buds and the undersurface of last leaves ; however , some coinage are adapted to bung on roots . aphid are a huge pestilence on roses , other flowers , vegetables , bush , and tree . Enemies include assassin bugs , damoiselle bugs , ladybeetle , spiders , and hover flies .
TheColorado Potato Beetle , Leptinotarsa decemlineata , is a major white potato pesterer throughout North America . It was first recognise as a potato plague in 1859 in Colorado when the beetleswitched from its normal legion , buffalo bur , a congener of the white potato , to crop potatoes bring into the part by early settlers . Once beetles began feeding and reproducing on cultivate white potato , they were able to migrate eastwards , feeding on potato grow on farm and in garden throughout the Great Plains and the Ohio River Valley . On mediocre , the Colorado white potato mallet inflate its range eastwards approximately 85 miles per twelvemonth , reaching the East Coast by 1874 .
Adult Colorado white potato beetles are 1/3″ long with hard , rounded wing covers that are black - and - tan striped . The fat , scarlet - pink larva are 1/2″ long , have row of black dots on their sides , and a small contraband headland . Colorado white potato beetles are very common across the U.S. , except in the Pacific Northwest and the Deep South . They feast on all phallus of the tomato family , though Solanum tuberosum are by far their favored food . enemy of the Colorado tater beetle include : assassin bugs , praying mantises , parasitic wasp , tachinid tent flap , and damsel microbe .
Cucumber Beetle . Both the striped and tell apart cucumber mallet is aserious pest in Virginia . Both species measure about ¼ ” long . Cucumber beetle fee on cucurbit such as cucumber , melon , squash , watermelon , and pumpkin vine and are considered to be one of the most destructive insect plague of these crops . The striped cuke mallet may also feed upon asters , roses , white potato vine , Indian corn , and peanuts , particularly when cucurbit plants are unavailable . fully grown cucumber vine beetles chew ragged hole in leafage and can completely defoliate and destroy young seedling . The striped cucumber beetle also can transmit a deathly bacterial wilt disease and mosaic computer virus . In improver to leafage eating , adults can chew the stems , flowers , and rinds of fruit . Predators of the cucumber beetle admit assassin bugs , parasitic WASP , tachinid fly ball and bloodsucking nematode worm .
Mexican Bean Beetleadults are coppery brownish with fatal situation . They await very much like big peeress beetles and in fact are tight link up , but unlike noblewoman beetle , they feed on leave , not on other worm . short after adult arrive in the dome patch , they lay yellowed - orange egg hoi polloi on the underside of bean leaf . These egg hatch into bright yellow , spiny , ellipse larvae which feed ; molt several times as they acquire ; and pupate on the underside of leaves . Feeding damage from adults and larvae can reduce yield and wound pod if number are gamy . A parasitoid waspPediobius foveolatushas been found to be an effective biologic ascendence .
TheJapanese Beetleis a major pest of lawns and ornamental plants in Virginia . Adult beetles feed on more than 275 species of plants but specially like plants in the rose kinsperson . Grubs ( larvae ) provender on the roots of turf grasses such as Kentucky bluegrass , fine fescue , ryegrass , and bentgrass .
Bagworm Caterpillarsmake typical 1.5 to 2 inch long arbor - shaped bags that can be seen hanging from the twigs of a diversity of tree and shrubs . Sometimes the bags are mistaken for pine strobilus or other plant structures . Bagworms are perennial pests of juniper , arborvitae , spruce , pine , cedarwood and other conifer species . They also assail deciduous trees . distaff moths can not aviate but the larvae can disperse . Very little caterpillars can whirl strand of silk and be carry by tip , an body process call “ ballooning . ” magnanimous larvae may crawl to adjacent plant life . Bagworms construct protective bags for overwintering and from which young larvae will crawl out next yr .
Eastern Tent Caterpillars(Malacosoma americanum ) have been numerous and obvious the past few weeks in Iowa . I have note turgid turn of them on ornamental shrubs planted along the interstate highways .
easterly tent caterpillars make “ tent ” of silk in the crooks of limb of the tree or shrub they are feed on . The Caterpillar use the collapsible shelter for trade protection from weather , predatory animal and parasite and move out of the collapsible shelter to feed on the leaf during the solar day . Tents start out very belittled but exposit as the caterpillars feast and grow and add to the tent , do them more obvious in the landscape .
Caterpillars feed on the buds and foliage of a variety of trees and shrubs but prefer Malus pumila , crab orchard apple tree , wild plum tree , cherry tree , and similar tree diagram .
TheBrown Marmorated Stink Bug(BMS ) arrived in this county from Asia in the 1990s and has become both a nuisance in the home landscape and a problem for works . It feeds on many fruits , vegetables , berry , grapevine , rose , and more . Presently there are no known aboriginal predator . For more entropy check out our article , “ Brown Marmorated Stink Bug,“in the November 2016 issue ofThe Garden Shed .
The Diversified Garden
A colony of aphids , cutworm , or crush bug may appear overnight but it takes meter to build up an army of good insects , and this flesh - up has to initiate ahead of time in the horticulture time of year . The consequence are not instant but the benefit in the garden are accumulative over fourth dimension . As the planting maturate and resident populations of beneficial insect become established , the pauperization for chemical substance pesticide and other aggressive insect control techniques will diminish . One of the gardener ’s most unmanageable challenges is to resist the urge to spray or detritus insect powder until the peculiar plague problem has been identified . Now when I go on patrol in the veggie garden , I will go armed with a script lens and an insect reference book . Before I squeeze that microbe between my forefinger and thumb or that egg mass attached to a leaf , I will want to know if it is a foe or a friend . And this is not as easy as it sound . There are several bad insects that are very similar to good insects . Two that come to mind are the Mexican bean mallet ( sorry ) and the ladybug ( good ) ; the brownish marmorated malodor bug ( bad ) and the spined soldier microbe ( good ) .
Remember what we discussed at the start of this article : In nature there is no such thing as a good bug or bad glitch ; it ’s all about balance . When a pest infestation breaks out and overwhelms our landscape painting , something has been thrown out of balance . This balance can be attributed to the loss of native habitat ( both our friends and foes need a home ) ; non - aboriginal ( alien ) pests being introduced ; and the regular use of semisynthetic , full - spectrum pesticides that are very efficient in kill good insect and pollinators . In general , using fewer , more control chemical solution results in a more diverse population of good insects . Sometimes in the high temperature of battle I bury that if we nuke all the bad bugs , there is nothing to get the proficient bugs so that they can attack the next bad bug plague .
The good bug and spoiled bug balance can also be negated by the unveiling of exotic pests that have no aboriginal resister . The browned marmorated reek hemipterous insect , the Asiatic gypsy moth , the emerald ash borer , and the hemlock tree ash borer are just a few alien pest that come to mind .
An first-class way to pull good insect into your landscape painting is to provide some elements of a native habitat in and around your landscape . This will meliorate the abundance and diversity of both pollinator and the lifelike enemies of pest . A garden with a honorable diversity of local and native plant will before long attract a unspoilt diversity of worm . check up on out our article“Insectary”in the April 2015 issue ofThe Garden Shed .
Often when we think about a pending louse infestation , we look out over a very important component — the industrial plant itself . The first line of defence in ward off a high-risk bug blast is having a level-headed plant . louse are attracted to a weakened or stressed plant . This cut condition can be the result of a lack of body of water and/or a deficiency of nutrients . A inviolable , unstressed plant has a gravid chance of live an insect onslaught .
Thanks for join us inThe Garden Shedand we look forward to your sojourn next calendar month .
Sources :
“ Insects as pest , ” North Carolina State University , https://projects.ncsu.edu / cals / course / ent425 / text18 / pestintro.html “
“ Number of Insects ( Species and Individuals ) , ” Smithsonian , https://www.si.edu / Encyclopedia_SI / nmnh / buginfo / bugnos.htm
“ The Importance of Pollinators , ” USDA , https://www.nrcs.usda.gov / wps / portal / nrcs / detail / pa / plantsanimals/?cid = nrcs142p2_018171
“ Good Bugs , Bad Bugs : The louse that Impact the Food We Eat , ” Cornell University , http://blogs.cornell.edu / naturalistoutreach / files/2013/09 / Good - glitch - Bad - Bug-1l3rl5c.pdf
“ Fanatical Botanical : Save the ( native ) bee , ” The Roanoke Times , http://www.roanoke.com / life / home_garden / fanatical - botanic - save - the - native - bee / article_135ca2bd-8f21 - 541e - b056 - a613b1035a86.html
“ Hover flies : Garden warrior , ” University of Illinois , http://news.aces.illinois.edu / news / hover - flies - garden - warrior
“ Parasitoid Wasps ( Hymenoptera ) , ” University of Maryland Cooperative Extension , https://extension.umd.edu / hgic / insect / parasitoid - wasps - hymenoptera
“ Colorado Potato Beetles in the Home Garden , ” University of Minnesota Extension , https://www.extension.umn.edu / garden / louse / find / colorado - potato - beetles/ ,
“ Cucumber Beetles , ” Virginia Cooperative Extension Publication 2808 - 1009,https://pubs.ext.vt.edu/2808/2808 - 1009/2808 - 1009.html
“ Pediobius foveolatus – A parasitoid of the Mexican bean overhang , ” Virginia Cooperative Extension Publication ENT 170,https://pubs.ext.vt.edu / ENTO / ENTO-170 / ENTO-170.html
