Beneficial Garden Insects| Insects that protect your plants

Beneficial Garden Insects| Insects that protect your plants

If all the insects were to disappear from the earth, within 50 years all life on earth would end. If all human beings disappeared from the earth, within 50 years all forms of life would flourish - Jonas Salk 

Not all insects are pests. Here are some of the most beneficial insects you should avoid killing in your garden. If they're spotted in your garden, don't kill them.

If you want to grow beautiful plants, don't kill off beneficial insects. Instead, let them live their lives without harming you.

Most Useful and Beneficial Garden Insects You Should Avoid Killing

1. Praying Mantis

A praying mantis eats grubs, bug, aphids, grass hoppers, crickets, and other small animals, helping keep the plants healthy in the garden.

Praying Mantis

2. Bees

Bees are one of the most important pollinators. While feeding on the nectar of flowers, they pollinate them too. 

Bees

3. Ladybugs (Ladybird)

Ladybirds feed on the pests, eating up to thousands of harmful insects including aphids, whitefly, scale, lice, and others.

Ladybugs

4. Butterflies

Butterflies perch upon flowers, drink their nectar, and carry pollens to fertilise others, thereby pollinating them.

 Butterflies

5. Lacewings

Lacewings are among the most effective predators of aphids and whiteflies. You need to repel ant colonies as they eat lacewing eggs .

Lacewings

6. Dragon Fly

They help keep pest populations down by eating other flying insects and pests like mosquitoes, flies, mites, butterflies, and wasps.

Dragon Fly

7. Earthworms

Earthworm castings help plants grow by providing them with nutrients and aerating the ground. They also help maintain the pH level balance.

Earthworms

8. Bumble Bees

Bumble bees are large, hairy pollinators. They feed on nectar and pollinate the plants. 

Bumble Bees

9. Spiders

Most people are scared of spiders, but they're really helpful because they feed on mosquitoes, flies, hoppers, ants, aphids, and many other pests.

Spiders

10. Ground Beetles

They are nocturnal hunting insects that help keep plant pests under control by preying on them.

Ground Beetles<

11. Assassin Bugs

They use their sharp mouths to kill the different insects in the garden.

Assassin Bugs

12. Hoverflies

Hoverflies are beneficial flies in the garden because they eat pollen and help pollinate plants. They can kill pests such as caterpillers, beetles, aphids and thrips.

 Hoverflies

13. Soldier Beetles

Soldier beetles can help control pests such as potato beetles, aphids, and caterpillars.

Soldier Beetles

14. Robber Flies

They kill insects and bugs that infest the plants.

15. Tachinid Fly

It is an active hunter of gypsy moth caterpillar, Japanese beetle, squash bug, grasshopper, Mexican bean beetle, and green stinkbugs.

Tachinid Fly

16. Dragonflies and damselflies

These insects lay eggs on water and crucial role in keeping mosquitoes away.

Dragonflies and damselflies

17. Rough Stink Bug

They stink because they secrete an unpleasant smell from their abdomens. They eat insects, including beetles, caterpillars, and aphids.

Rough Stink Bug

18. Aphid Midge

Aphid Midge feeds on over 50 different types of aphids. They inject poison into the joints of the aphid’s legs and then devour them.

19. Braconid Wasp

Braconid wasps prey on hornworm, squash bug, tent caterpillars, beetles, aphids, and stink bugs. These wasps are really useful for controlling pests around tomatoes.Aphid Midge

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Extra reading

10 plants to keep spiders out of your house

12 months flowering plants in India

Nithya pushpa (Catharanthus roseus)

Plant Insects

Plants that attract butterflies

Asian Butterfly bush (Buddleja asiatica)

 

Happy Gardening!

Dr. Vandana K.