If you jump and scream when you find a little worm in your produce, you may not find anything beneficial about bugs.
But bugs can help, especially in the garden. Lady beetles, or ladybugs, are the most recognizable beneficial insects. These critters are just one of many insects that like to eat bad bugs.
If you don’t see these voracious bugs in your yard, you might be tempted to buy a bagful at a garden store or greenhouse. But there are a few things you should know before you invest.
When you release adult ladybugs into your yard, they need to feed for a few weeks before they start laying eggs again, and they may move to another garden with a better menu.
Having flowers in bloom throughout the season, and discontinuing the use of non-selective pesticides, will help keep these critters at home.
One of their favorite snacks is aphids – good news if you have a large shade tree that shelters your car on hot summer days. The sticky stuff on your windshield you always thought was sap isn’t: It’s aphid dung.
There are other lesser-known bugs that like to eat the bad guys, too. Some are predators and some are parasites.
Among the predators are green lacewings, which many consider the most effective insect for pest control. They feed on aphids, white flies, mealy bugs, soft and armored scales, leaf beetles, Mexican bean beetles and caterpillars. Lacewings are generally sold as eggs, which you then spread around plants.
The spined soldier bug, a native stinkbug, is commercially available and also feeds on leaf beetles and caterpillars. Pirate bugs are tiny predators, less than an eighth of an inch long, that feed on thrips, aphids, mites and insect eggs. Four species of this common, but highly effective, predator are available commercially.
Small wasps are probably the most common parasites for pest control. Some attack eggs and some attack the insects in later stages of development. There are so many varieties of wasps available that is best to discuss the pest and crop with a knowledgeable supplier.
Purchasing live bugs for your garden may have some benefits and can be a part of integrated pest management. But because the bugs tend to move from yard to yard, it’s a questionable investment.
Lacewing eggs may be the best bet. They are technically alive, but eggs can’t walk or fly, and, like many of the good bugs, are most effective in the larvae stage. Learning to recognize the good bugs and protecting them by minimal use of selective pesticides is the wisest course.
Steve Danielski is a Colorado State University Cooperative Extension master gardener.
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Lady bug
Colorado hosts more than 80 species of lady bugs and, with one exception, all feed on aphids, scale insects, small insect larvae and other pests common in the garden. (The exception is the Mexican bean beetle, which develops by feeding on bean plants.) Its larva looks like a bowlegged alligator, generally dark with orange or yellow spotting.
Green lacewing
Several green lacewing species commonly are found in gardens. The adult stage is a pale green insect with large, clear, highly veined wings. Green lacewings lay a distinctive stalked egg, and larvae emerge in four to 10 days. These larvae, sometimes called aphid lions, feed on small caterpillars, beetles, aphids and other insects. Immature lace-wings are light brown with a large pair of hooked jaws.
Stinkbug, damsel bug, pirate bug, ambush bug, assassin bug
All feed by piercing the prey with their narrow mouth and sucking out body fluids. A red and black species of predatory stinkbug, capable of feeding on fairly large insects such as caterpillars and potato beetle larvae, is most conspicuous. More common, but less frequently observed, are damsel bugs, also called nabid bugs, which seek out aphids, insect eggs and small insect larvae.
Minute pirate bugs feed on thrips, spider mites and insect eggs. Other predatory bugs include ambush bugs and assassin bugs.
Ground beetles
Ground beetles are found under debris, in soil cracks or moving along the ground. Most garden pests that spend most of their life on the soil surface may be prey for beetles.
Mantids
While uncommon in most of Colorado, mantids, often called praying mantis, feed on almost any insects of the right size. They have one generation per year, with winter spent as eggs within a pod. One species of mantids, the Chinese mantid, is sometimes available for sale through nurseries and garden catalogs. But few, if any, survive winters in Colorado. Hunting wasps
Many take their prey, whole or in pieces, back to their mud, soil or paper nests to feed to immature wasps. Most feed on caterpillars and other insects on garden plants.
