12 Beneficial Bugs and Animals That Can Control Garden Pests

There are good bugs, along with birds and reptiles that eat the bad bugs that eat your gardens. Plenty of insects, the pollinators, fertilize your vegetable plants for a good harvest. It’s important to know the difference because if the good guys disappear, the bad guys take over.

Here is a description of some of the creatures you want to invite into your gardens to keep things balanced.

These red and black-spotted insects are so cute they’ve been turned into a motif for wearables, pottery, and lots more.

Lady beetles, Coccinella novemnotata, are voracious eliminators of aphids eating up to five thousand in a lifetime.

They also consume leafhoppers, thrips, scale insects, mites, mealy bugs, and the eggs of destructive beetles and caterpillars.

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Lacewings

Thousands of lacewing species exist but the larvae of the tiny green lacewing, Chrysopa spp., partner with her friend the lady beetle to rid your gardens of aphids, leafhoppers, mites, whiteflies, scale insects, thrips, and mealybugs.

Adults are weak flyers mostly seen at night, but their presence indicates they’ve completed their life cycle to lay more eggs for more hungry larvae to rid your garden of insect pests.

Ground Beetles

Although they may have different colors and shapes, ground beetles, Carabidae, have ridged wing covers over the back part of the body.

These beetles are most often seen feeding at soil level but sometimes climb into foliage. Both adults and larvae, which feed below the soil, are one of the best predators of insect pests in the garden. Ground beetle activity also helps suppress weeds.

Parasitic Wasps

Braconid, Perilitus coccinellae, and Ichneumon, Megarhyssa macrurus, wasps are valued for destroying harmful caterpillars in your garden. These tiny, parasitic wasps insert their eggs under the caterpillar’s skin and larvae feed on the host, killing it.

Parasitic wasps also kill flies, sawflies, beetles, weevils, leafmining insects, true bugs, and ants. Parasitic wasps are not harmful and do not sting humans or pets.

Bees

Bees are the most efficient and important pollinators in your garden. Thousands of different species exist but bumblebees and honeybees are most easily recognized moving from plant to plant, carrying pollen, and fertilizing crops.

One out of every four bites of food you take is due to bee pollination, up to 75 percent of the fruits, nuts, and vegetables grown in the U.S.

Not all bees sting and only the female honeybee and bumblebee carry stingers. They are much more interested in flowers than humans and only sting in defense when bothered.

Mantids

Two types of mantids are often found in the garden; the native, brown, praying mantis, Mantis religiosa, and the Chinese, green mantis, Tenodera sinensis.

These alien-looking creatures are fascinating to watch as they blend in with the stems and leaves of plants and wait patiently for prey. They possess one of the fastest killing strikes in nature at 1/20th of a second.

Mantids can spot prey 60 feet away and are fearsome enemies of insect and spider pests consuming the legs first so the hapless bug or spider can’t get away.

Spiders

The yellow garden spider, Argiope aurantia, injects venom to kill prey after trapping it in their web.

Garden spiders are generalists consuming plenty of insect pests and should be protected. Other beneficial types include barn, grass, crab, wolf, and jumping spiders.

Assassin Bugs

Whether you think bugs are creepy or fascinating, have a look at the wheel bug, Arilus cristatus, a species of assassin bug.

Larger than most other bugs, assassin bugs are important predators in the garden feeding on pests as small as aphids up to unwanted caterpillars.

They have long legs, beady, round eyes, and a dagger-like beak used to pierce and kill their prey. Of the 160 species found in the United States most are harmless, but large assassin bugs may bite when handled so leave these unusual insects alone to clear your gardens of other insect pests.

Birds

Small bird species do an amazing amount of work in the garden. Wrens, titmice, and chickadees eat all types of insect pests from ants to beetles to caterpillars.

Sparrows and finches consume seeds to help eliminate weeds. Hummingbirds eat small insects and visit flowers to aid in pollination.

Bluebirds and orioles take care of flying insect pests and grubs in orchards and screech owls hunt for small animal pests such as voles and field mice that eat plant roots.

Bats

Insect-eating bats species are so desirable, specially designed houses are sold to help gardeners attract these flying mammals.

The big, brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus, is known as ‘friend of farmers’ for ridding gardens and orchards of destructive insects, particularly the cucumber beetle.

Brown bats are rarely dangerous. They hunt at night and fly away from human contact. However, bats can carry rabies causing them to act abnormally aggressive. If you encounter a bat with weird behavior contact your local health department or animal control agency.

Toads

Toads can spend almost their entire adult life in the garden feeding on worms, ants, spiders, mealworms, crickets, slugs, and more.

Toad houses are popular garden art, easy to make, and provide shelter toads require to make your garden a home.

Snakes

The species you are most likely to run into in yards and gardens is the harmless, common garter snake.

Despite its smaller size of up to 3 feet long, this is a fierce predator of mice, voles, snails, slugs, and plenty of insect pests.