Good vs. Evil: Determining which Bugs are Good or Bad for Your Garden
Your garden is the pride and joy of the outside of your home. You carefully choose all the flowers and plants that are its foundation. Alas, bugs love your garden as much as you do. That should bother you since many pests can damage it. Not all these critters are bad, though. Here’s a guide to determining which bugs are good or bad for your garden.
Meet the Beetles
Your garden can attract several kinds of beetles. Some of them enhance the ecosystem while others work hard to destroy it. You’ll need to learn how to identify the important types to keep your garden looking majestic.
Rove beetles are tiny, generally less than one inch long, and quite thin. You’ll recognize them by their primary colors, brown and gray. If you see them, you should be happy. These bugs have insatiable appetites, and they enjoy devouring other pests. When you have rove beetles in your garden, you won’t have to worry about fleas, flies, mosquitoes, or mites. The roves will eat them.
You obviously want to attract such beetles to your garden. A great way to do this is by leaving rocks and mulch in the area; Rove beetles love it. They’ll also eat leaves, so planting a tree nearby is a good idea, too.
Ladies in the Garden
Ladybugs are the other well-known type of beetle that will help your garden. You already know how to spot one of these beautiful creatures due to their distinctive shell domes covered with spots. There’s a reason ladybugs are such popular mascots and subjects of elementary school drawings. What you may not realize is that they eat aphids and other soft-bodied garden pests. Best of all, you only need to plant something fragrant such as scented geraniums to attract ladybugs to your garden.
Not a Beetles Fan
Some beetles are a nightmare for your garden. A general rule is that the larger a beetle is, the better it’ll be for your vegetation. That’s because smaller beetles eat plants while larger ones feast on smaller bugs. You want the latter to insure your garden’s sanctity.
The worst beetles are the types like the Mexican bean beetle. You’ll know its tiny size at a quarter-inch long or smaller. It also has a noticeable copper color and black spots on each side of its wings. These bugs are terrible for your garden. They live off the leaves, but when they can’t find enough of those, they turn to pods and plant stems. Mexican bean beetles destroy the backbone of your garden, and you might not notice in time because they’re diligent.
The best way to keep them away is by paying attention to how they survive. As the name implies, they love legumes. You can avoid beetle issues by selecting garden legumes that have earlier seasonal planting cycles. They’ll be ready for harvest too soon for the bean beetles to destroy them.
Fear the Yellow Jackets
Most people don’t like yellow jackets since they have a nasty habit of stinging anything that gets in their way. Any gardener who allows these wasps to nest in their garden will suffer through a painful summer. The situation is that much worse for those who are allergic to bee stings. You can avoid the problem altogether by considering what yellow jackets want. They come to your garden for fruits, nectar, and sap, the presence of which will mean a nearby nest is a strong possibility.
You’ll have both good and bad bugs in your garden at some point, but when learning which bugs are good or bad, you might need some help. The best way to deal with troublesome creatures is by calling an exterminator. Contact Beeline Pest Control at 801-204-9134 to rid your garden of pests.