Show kindness to garden-friendly bugs
Bugs. Insects. Creepy crawlers.
They rank right up there on our list of fears, and a walk down the aisles of any garden store speaks to our willingness to exterminate the things.
But wait before you spray. You could kill a bug with a very green thumb.
“I think people have the misconception that if bugs are in the garden, they should get rid of them and assume they are doing harm,” said Megan Kemple, public education coordinator with the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides of Eugene, Ore.
Insect does not equate to pest, and bug-free does not equate to healthy, she said.
“If we use insecticides, those often kill all insects in an area. That means they are killing the good bugs as well as the bad bugs.”
Insects are part of the natural cycle, and agriculture thrived for thousands of years without the likes of glyphosate, dimethylamine salt and propoxur — just a few of the active ingredients in today’s popular pesticides. But agriculture couldn’t have gotten too far without the likes of the bumblebee, or the wasp or the ant.
So skip the Roundup and Raid and plant around the friendly bugs. By sparing the life of these hard-working, beneficial critters, you will keep a slew of chemicals off your veggies and out of our watersheds.
Here is the scoop on two bugs to make friends with:
Ladybug (hippodamia convergens)
Why they’re good: Hippodamia convergens (meaning “lady killer)” are quite adept at sucking the life out of aphids and other pests, including scale, white flies, spider mites and mealy bugs.
How to help them thrive: Ladybugs like a consistent food source, especially nectar, pollen and water. They also need a place to squat and take quite fondly to laying their eggs on upturned leaves.
Green lacewings (chrysoperla carnea)
Why they’re good: Lacewings are known in their larval stage as “aphid lions” and prey on the common and very unwanted aphids and mites. They also chow on the eggs and larvae of corn borers, spider mites, scales, psylla, mealy bugs, whiteflies, thrips, leafhoppers and other soft-bodied prey.
How to help them thrive: Pay these babies back with a little loving care in the form of some good shelter and plant biodiversity. Some like trees and shrubs, while others prefer dense vegetation.
Other good bugs:
The pollinator gang
Why they’re cool: They pollinate plants and help keep the whole vegetation cycle in motion.
Who’s on board: Bumblebees and alkali bees, flies, butterflies, wasps and ants.
The parasitoid gang
Why they’re cool: Parasitoids develop and die within a single insect host, ultimately killing the “bad” bugs.
Who’s on board: Tachinid flies, ichneumon, braconid, trichogramma, chalcid, sphecid wasps.
The predator gang
Why they’re cool: They devour the bugs that like to devour our plants.
Who’s on board: Ground beetles, praying mantis, wasps, flies, and some spiders.