Garden Guests: The Good, The Bad, and What to Do About Them

When the weather is fine, it’s always nice to spend a relaxing day in your garden, especially when there’s nothing lurking in the corner to spoil your pleasure. Unfortunately, pesky pests can certainly exist if you don’t spend enough time maintaining your yard or garden landscape.

Of course, besides pesky bugs, there are also beneficial insects that can do your garden a lot of good. This is why expert landscape maintenance service providers advise homeowners to learn to tell between beneficial bugs and other helpful creatures, and bad garden insects and other types of pests.

What Is a Garden Pest?

A garden pest refers to any animal or insect in your garden that can cause damage not just to your plants and property but also to your health. The damage they wreak can range from munching on plants to destroying your garden furniture to create nests.

Knowing Who’s Good and Bad

For your plants’ survival, it’s important to practice pest control for a successful low-maintenance garden. The best solution is to not resort to poisonous sprays that can harm the ecosystem but to find natural ways to eliminate pests.

To start, you need to distinguish your garden guests into two types – the good and the bad. Bad guests are all garden creatures who love to munch on your prized flowering plants, fruits, and vegetables. On the other hand, these pests have natural predators which you can call your good garden guests.

a) Bad Guests

There are various garden pests responsible for damaging your backyard. It’s vital that you know how to get these pests under control as they can inflict serious damage that may result in huge costs.

Here are the common garden pests you may encounter in your property:

Aphids: They cause damage to your plants by eating the leaves. They also spread plant diseases and secretes honeydew which attracts other pests.

Caterpillars, grubs and cutworms: The larvae of butterflies, beetles and moths, these are all voracious eaters. Before they transform, they need to eat a lot of plant materials. When not controlled, they can finish off all leaves of a particular plant.

Grasshoppers: They are pests that can destroy your garden especially when left unchecked.

Termites: These pests feed on any organic matter made of cellulose. They consume wood in the shape of mulch, trees, sheds, fences, decking, and gates. What’s worse, termites can make use of your garden to reach your house.

Wasps and hornets: Attracted to fruit and flowers, these pests will sting you when they feel threatened. Furthermore, they build their nests in sheds, on trees, and at the undersides of decks.

Rats: These vermin can spread diseases in your home through its feces and urine. Not only that, they also inflict damage by gnawing at outside wires, shed doors, fruits, and vegetables.

Squirrels: These pests make trees vulnerable to diseases and weather conditions by stripping off barks. In addition, they destroy your beloved blooms by eating flower buds.

Moles: These are pesky creatures that can disrupt your garden soil by digging underground.

Slugs and snails: These are the most commonly seen garden pests that thrive in moist conditions. They harm your garden by feeding on a large range of decaying and living plants.

b) Good Guests

Not all uninvited guests in your garden cause harm. There are some garden animals that are actually beneficial. Take a look at some of the highly efficient hunters that will help eliminate your enemies in the garden.

Ants: Despite their liking for harvesting aphids that make them a pest, ants are also beneficial to your plants. They are natural garbage collectors in your garden as they clear away dead shells and bodies of other creatures.

Bats: Although bats have a bad reputation (thanks to the hundreds of horror films that have featured them), they are one of the best nocturnal flying creatures to have in your garden. They are insectivores that can devour around 500 insects in just an hour.

Bees: Essential to every garden, bees feed on plant nectar and pollen. In turn, this helps pollinate your precious flowers and plants.

Beetles: Although some types of beetles are pests, Bombardier and ground beetles are different. They prey on cutworms, caterpillars, slugs, aphids, termites, etc., which makes them great garden assets.

Birds: Small birds such as flycatchers, fantails, robins, and willy wagtails are welcome in the garden as they eat various pests.

Butterflies: Although their larvae feast on some of your plants, they make up for it once they become adult butterflies. They beautify your garden and help pollinate it.

Frogs: These are easily lured by a pond and are effective assassins of many pests. Cockroaches, moths, grasshoppers, mosquitoes and flies are just some of their common targets.

Hoverflies: These are the highly valued garden guests as they imitate wasps and bees to wait for prey like beetles, aphids, and caterpillars. They lay eggs around aphids for their offspring to feed on them, and help pollinate the plants in your yard.

Praying mantises: Both larvae and adults feed on smaller insects as well as cabbage moths. In fact, their presence in your garden is a great indicator of having a balanced ecosystem.

Spiders: You may be afraid of spiders, yet, they are important predators in reality. If not for them, the earth may end up getting overrun by pesky insects.

What To Do with Your Garden Guests

Employing good guests in your garden will help you maintain a lush and lovely outdoor space.  And now that you know how to differentiate pests from helpful garden guests, make sure to eliminate only those that harm your garden.

Use smart strategies to make sure you create a balanced garden ecosystem.

The tips below will help you attract good garden guests and keep away pests from your lawn:

1. Lure beneficial insects in your home by planting their favorite plants in your garden. Some good choices are sunflowers, alyssum, parsley, and lemon balm. By attracting pest-munching insects and animals to your garden, you will prevent the harmful insects from multiplying. You can also make a border of insect-friendly plants around your garden perimeter to attract beneficial garden guests and keep them in your yard. Plants which are perfect for border planting include fennel, cup plant, cornflowers, and borage.

2. Stop spraying pesticides because they can also damage beneficial insects. To keep a healthy balance in your yard, ditch chemical pesticides and keep beneficial insects alive. After all, these good insects will take care of the nuisance pests for you.

3. Routinely inspect your garden (including plants in pots) for any infestation and maintain good garden hygiene to reduce clutter and pest hiding places.

You can also control pests by enlisting the services of a pest control professional who will not only help you manage pest infestations but can also provide valuable advice on using natural pest control methods.

Remember, for every bug that eats your plants, there are six or seven good garden guests that will help you eliminate pests. So, take care of good natural garden predators to create a sustainable garden free from pesky pests.