Not every creepy-crawly is a pest to be squashed. Here's a list to help you sort the helpful insects in your garden from the not-so-helpful.
By James Jackson
", credit: "Mark Turner/Getty Images", sourceid: null, sourcename: "", sourceurl: null, sourcelogo: "", thumbsrc: "/cm/popularmechanics/images/Qg/garden-insect-guide-01-0513-smn.jpg", src: "/cm/popularmechanics/images/KX/garden-insect-guide-01-0513-lgn.jpg", srcwidth: 600, srcheight: 450 }, { id: "slide2", url: "know-your-gardens-insect-friends-and-foes-2", slidetype: "image", title: "Ladybugs: Friends", description: "Perhaps the most recognizable insect out there. There are actually about 250 varieties of this voracious killer, and they dine primarily on aphids, a notorious garden muncher, but they eat other soft-bodied insects as well. Ladybugs come in yellow, orange, red, gray and black, with and without spots.", credit: "Kathy Collins/Getty Images", sourceid: null, sourcename: "", sourceurl: null, sourcelogo: "", thumbsrc: "/cm/popularmechanics/images/pT/garden-insect-guide-02-0513-smn.jpg", src: "/cm/popularmechanics/images/5h/garden-insect-guide-02-0513-lgn.jpg", srcwidth: 600, srcheight: 450 }, { id: "slide3", url: "know-your-gardens-insect-friends-and-foes-3", slidetype: "image", title: "Green Lacewing: Friends", description: "Bright green and about half an inch long, the lacewing has a set of large, transparent wings. The adults live off nectar while searching for a mate, but it\'s the younger stage of their life cycle that makes them a gardener\'s friend. The larvae are nicknamed aphid lions because they love to dine on the little pests, but they also eat mites and other insect eggs. Larvae measure one-third of an inch at birth and resemble alligators with dark- and light-brown markings.", credit: "ZenShui/Odilon Dimier/Getty Images", sourceid: null, sourcename: "", sourceurl: null, sourcelogo: "", thumbsrc: "/cm/popularmechanics/images/kY/garden-insect-guide-03-0513-smn.jpg", src: "/cm/popularmechanics/images/tE/garden-insect-guide-03-0513-lgn.jpg", srcwidth: 600, srcheight: 450 }, { id: "slide4", url: "know-your-gardens-insect-friends-and-foes-4", slidetype: "image", title: "Wasps, Yellow Jackets, and Hornets: Friends", description: "The scourge of many a person who got too close to a nest, these annoying and often uninvited insects are important garden predators. Hornets and yellow jackets start a new nest each year in trees, under roof eaves, or in the ground. The larvae are blind and feed on insects that the queen or other wasp adults collect (flies, aphids, and thrips are among their favorites). Each colony can produce between 20 and 50 queens, which emerge in early spring and late fall to start the cycle again. Queens are larger than the typical adult and are loaded with eggs.", credit: "ElementalImaging/Getty Images", sourceid: null, sourcename: "", sourceurl: null, sourcelogo: "", thumbsrc: "/cm/popularmechanics/images/Zb/garden-insect-guide-04-0513-smn.jpg", src: "/cm/popularmechanics/images/23/garden-insect-guide-04-0513-lgn.jpg", srcwidth: 600, srcheight: 450 }, { id: "slide5", url: "know-your-gardens-insect-friends-and-foes-5", slidetype: "image", title: "Honeybees: Friends", description: "It is estimated that the honeybee is responsible for a staggering 80 percent of the pollination of fruits, nut, grains, and vegetables in the United States, and the value of honeybees to American agriculture is estimated at more than $14 billion. Honeybees visit a wide variety of flower types, and in a single day one bee can make more than a dozen trips out of the hive in search of flowering plants. Larvae are fed honey and pollen as they develop.", credit: "Medioimages/Photodisc/Getty Images", sourceid: null, sourcename: "", sourceurl: null, sourcelogo: "", thumbsrc: "/cm/popularmechanics/images/OM/garden-insect-guide-05-0513-smn.jpg", src: "/cm/popularmechanics/images/te/garden-insect-guide-05-0513-lgn.jpg", srcwidth: 600, srcheight: 450 }, { id: "slide6", url: "know-your-gardens-insect-friends-and-foes-6", slidetype: "image", title: "Aphids: Foes", description: "These pests attack the watery, soft tissue of plants, especially new growth. They undergo seemingly countless life cycles and never go away. Aphids will attract another unwanted garden pest?ants ?that feeds on the sugary honeydew aphids leave behind (in exchange, the ants protect the aphids from predators and parasites). \n
\nSquish aphids or spray them off the plant with a heavy stream of water. Natural predators include ladybugs, dragonflies, wasps, and spiders. You can also add two or three drops of dish soap to a spray bottle filled with water and spray leaves or stems to smother aphids. Test on a small area of the plant first to ensure the solution will not harm it.", credit: "Azem Ramadani/Getty Images", sourceid: null, sourcename: "", sourceurl: null, sourcelogo: "", thumbsrc: "/cm/popularmechanics/images/Jw/garden-insect-guide-06-0513-smn.jpg", src: "/cm/popularmechanics/images/E0/garden-insect-guide-06-0513-lgn.jpg", srcwidth: 600, srcheight: 450 }, { id: "slide7", url: "know-your-gardens-insect-friends-and-foes-7", slidetype: "image", title: "Land Slugs and Snails: Foes", description: "Okay, they\'re not insects. But slugs and snails are included on this list because their sole mission in life is to eat, albeit very slowly. Just a handful can decimate a garden by eating the leaves and crop. Handpicking slugs and snails is an effective way of limiting their population. Look through your garden in the evening or early morning. Slugs are a favorite food of ducks, so consider releasing them close to a nearby body of water. A copper barrier is also good at keeping these creatures at bay, because touching copper gives them an electric shock that will turn them around. Wrap thin copper strips around the base of a raised bed or tree trunks.", credit: "Ottmar Diez/Getty Images", sourceid: null, sourcename: "", sourceurl: null, sourcelogo: "", thumbsrc: "/cm/popularmechanics/images/Y5/garden-insect-guide-07-0513-smn.jpg", src: "/cm/popularmechanics/images/bD/garden-insect-guide-07-0513-lgn.jpg", srcwidth: 600, srcheight: 450 }, { id: "slide8", url: "know-your-gardens-insect-friends-and-foes-8", slidetype: "image", title: "Cutworms: Foes", description: "The larvae of moths, these inch-long caterpillars can range in color from green to brown. The larvae eat the stems of young vegetables and vulnerable flower seedlings. A cardboard collar around seedlings (or planted seeds) is an effective barrier (a toilet paper tube works well). Remove the tube once the plant is 12 inches tall. Trichogramma wasps are a natural predator of the cutworm.\n
\nFor more information, the website Insectidentification.org is a terrific resource. Casual gardeners can enter the color and number of legs of the creature they are trying to identify, as well as the state they live in, and the site generates a list of possibilities.", credit: "John Macgregor/Getty Images", sourceid: null, sourcename: "", sourceurl: null, sourcelogo: "", thumbsrc: "/cm/popularmechanics/images/0S/garden-insect-guide-08-0513-smn.jpg", src: "/cm/popularmechanics/images/2M/garden-insect-guide-08-0513-lgn.jpg", srcwidth: 600, srcheight: 450 } ] };
Insects are virtually everywhere, and it's impossible to keep them out of your garden. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. A wide variety of insect life promotes biodiversity in the wild, and the same is true for your garden.
Most of the insects you encounter in your garden are probably of the beneficial variety. So, when designing your garden, make sure to leave some areas wild and undisturbed. Leave a section of the grass unmowed, build bug boxes, spread mulch, and plant a wide variety of flowering plants, including angelica, buckwheat, dill or fennel, marigolds, and sunflowers.
However, it pays to know the constructive bugs from the destructive ones. The following is a list of some common insects that will help or hinder your garden plot, along with some tips on how to attract the good bugs and deter the bad ones.
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