Not all insects are harmful to gardens

It’s important to know the difference between helpful and harmful insects if you are a gardener and want your hard work to flourish.

Most people know that butterflies and bees are helpful because they pollinate flowers, but not many know that they also keep dangerous pests to keep away from your garden as well.

Insects are the most diverse group of organisms.  What we know is that 900,000 different kinds of insects are known in the world and it can get frustrating for gardeners when they find their garden has been infested. To remedy this some homeowners may be tempted to kill any insect that they find in their yard, but it would be wise for gardeners to learn the difference between which insects are doing their garden harm and which are actually helping, especially in Temecula, California, where there is a thriving wine country. 

Killing one bee may not just mean killing the one, but it could cause a ripple effect that can not only do more harm to your garden in the long run, but gardens in the surrounding areas as well,.  However, there are certain insects that can be dangerous to animals and plants.

Some harmful insects to be on the lookout for include aphids, which suck on the juice of plants, bald-faced hornets, which are aggressive and can sting repeatedly, carpenter ants, which will burrow into wood and cause damage to any wooden structure and homes; locusts, there are a variety of species that can cause damage to plants and crops because of their appetite.

Other harmful insects include treehoppers, which can look like leaves and they, like the locusts, have a big appetite and can do a lot of damage to crops and gardens. The red pavement ant will feed on just about anything that they can consume and therefore can easily take over areas with their numbers, and they also have a painful bite. There’s also the grasshopper and caterpillar. Certain grasshoppers can destroy food crops and carry parasites to birds when they get eaten, and many gardeners are aware of this, but several types of caterpillars will feed on any and sometimes all parts of a plant. Some like the tobacco hornworm moth caterpillar can destroy potato and tomato plants entirely.

But don’t fret because there are plenty of helpful insects as well which is important since plants depend on certain insects to pollinate and keep other, more harmful ones away, especially in the Temecula area with its growing wineries.

Antlion are helpful in that they eat and control the ant population and pollinate flowers. The big dipper firefly eat earthworms, slugs and snails during the larval stage, keeping them from doing growing into full grown pests that can do damage to your plants.
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Some other helpful insects include garden spiders, dragonflies, blue-winged wasp, which are great because they attack the larvae of Japanese beetles, and of course bees and butterflies because they are the best pollinators.