Critters That Help Your Garden Grow

Garden critters often make people cringe, especially when they are on food. Unfortunately, bugs and insects have discovered that few things taste as good as fresh produce. Reaching for the bottle of pesticide is not the only way to win the battle — many different bugs will fight for you. These bugs eat the bad bugs and not your plants. The next time you see one of the following bugs in your garden, thank it.

Ladybugs

Lady beetles, more often called ladybugs, are a true friend to the gardener. Their life cycle takes them on a metamorphosis journey that includes egg, larva, pupa, and adult. In the larva and adult stages, ladybugs eat aphids. As adults, they also eat white flies, scales insects and mites. A few species even eat mildew and fungus.

In addition to its appetite, a ladybug has other ways to keep garden pests out of your food. Adult ladybugs have a hard round body with short legs, and they are usually a crisp red with a range of black spots. The bright color contrast symbolizes toxicity to potential prey, scaring away many unwanted insects. Ladybugs also excrete hemolymph, a toxic and foul-smelling substance, from the leg joints.

If you aren't blessed with ladybugs, you can buy ladybugs to add to your garden. These garden critters reproduce quickly and lay up to 1,000 eggs within just a few months. Most gardeners find that they only need to purchase a small number of ladybugs to populate an entire garden. For a small raised garden bed, you may only need to transplant one or two from other areas nearby.

Praying Mantis

The praying mantis is a skilled and stealthy predator insect. The garden insect eats other insects and some larger species even eat small invertebrate animals, like lizards. These skilled hunters aren't selective in their diet and will eat the good bugs along with the bad, but this balance can create a natural garden balance.

Praying mantis, commonly misspelled preying mantis or praying mandis, are usually green or brown and blend into the leafy terrain as if they were a branch on a stick. The predators have several factors that make them good garden insects.

They can rotate their arrow-shaped heads to look behind their bodies, which is a rare trait.

They can remain virtually motionless while waiting for prey.

They keep their front legs folded, as though praying, allowing them to snatch and capture food.

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Pollinating Bugs

Every garden needs pollination from an outside source. This usually happens when an organism uses your plants or flowers for food or shelter. The organism will move from one flower to another, introducing leftover pollen from the previous plant. Some common garden pollinators are butterflies, syrphid flies, humming birds, and bees.

One of the best-known and best-suited organisms for pollination in a garden is the honeybee. These garden workers work well when they have a hive somewhere close to your vegetables or flowers. In fact, beekeepers ship thousands of hives across the U.S. every year in order for these hard workers to pollinate huge farms.

If you don't want to purchase garden pollinators, plant flowers or vegetables that will attract them. You may even want to sculpt your garden around these plants.

For a butterfly garden, find out what butterflies are in your region and then look at a butterfly chart from the Butterfly Website to see what plants to use. For example, the Anise Swallowtail butterfly prefers Queen Anne's lace and Joe Pye weed or buddleia.

For syrphid flies, also called hover flies or flower flies, you can plant dill, lavender, crimson thyme, and caraway, among other things.

For humming birds, plant flowers in or around your garden. Hummingbirds favor columbine, anise sage, coral honeysuckle, and trumpet creeper.

For honeybees, you can plant flowers, trees, vegetables, fruits or herbs. Some common fruits and vegetables for attracting honeybees include blackberries, wild garlic, pumpkins, and cantaloupe.

Garden bugs play a vital role in a healthy garden. Numerous insects help to keep the soil aerated and fertile for your plants. Furthermore, different regions have different good and bad bugs to keep in balance. Let the battle of nature keep your garden healthy and fruitful. For more gardening tips and information on organic gardening, visit our DIY blog.