Good bugs & Bad bugs for your garden

When you’re very new to the plant world, the only thing in your head is “BUGS ARE BAD”. We freak out at the sight of anything crawling or flying around our plants.

But there are good bugs that eat bad garden bugs, which you really want to keep in your garden! 

First, let’s learn about the Bad garden bugs guys:

1. Mealy Bugs: 

Mealybugs are tiny white fuzzy guys that stick to your plant and feeds off the juices. They spread from plant to plant and there is a chance that a new affected plant that you get from a nursery, can spread the bugs to your other plants. So always be very vigilant while buying your plants.

2. Aphids and Root aphids:

Aphids are tiny green, brown, light yellow bugs that appear in clusters on the plant. If you pay close attention you can detect and remove them before it gets out of hand. Root aphids, on the other hand, are very hard to detect. They live under the soil and cling to the roots. You may not notice these guys until you actually repot the plant. So please try to check the roots beforehand because aphids suck out the juices of the plant and make it weak.

3. Spider mites:

These little buggers are so extremely tiny, it's hard to detect them. They live on the underside of the leaves and spin silky webs and live under that layer. The signs of spider mites can be small little faded spots on the leaves. They feed on the plant’s chlorophyll. 

4. Common Mormon Butterfly caterpillar:

These grow extremely fast and can eat so much of your garden. They love eating Curry leaves and orange and Ixora. They’re a light shade of green and can be hard to spot so you have to keep an eye out. 

Now the Good bugs that you should be happy if you see them on your plants:

1. Ladybugs:

If you find insects cute, these little bugs are the cutest! They can really help with an aphid infestation. A single ladybug can eat around 50 aphids per day. They also snack on mealy worms and mites. You can plant some dill or fennel in your garden to attract these little ladies. 

2. Ground Beetle: 

Like its name, this little bug gets rid of all the bad bugs in the ground. They eat snails and cabbage maggots and slugs. And they have quite the appetite! One of these guys can eat up to 50 caterpillars! A way to attract them is to plant perennial flowers! 

3. Tachinid fly:

The way these flies execute bad bug control is a little morbid but very effective. They insert the larvae into the bad bug and they hatch inside the bug and eat it from the inside out. Did you cringe? And even if the larvae are outside, a bad bug will eat this larva.

Tachinid flies can eat a lot of bad worms and also help the bees pollinate the garden! You can attract these little wonders by planting Parsley and dill!

4. Green lacewings:

Along with being very pretty, these bugs will eat Aphids, Leafhoppers, Mealybugs.

They can also control spider mites and whiteflies. They can eat a lot so we need to attract these in large numbers. You can plant dill and coriander to invite these into your garden!

Until next time,

Have a lovely day!

Gayatri Vaidya©