Bad & Good Bugs in Your Garden

What are the bugs in your garden? Good, Bad?

[jesseostone]

As a truck driver, I was glad to see you included the Spotted LANTERNFLY in your bad bug list. We had training on this destructive insect and what to look for on our truck and trailer because they are notorious hitchhikers and we truckers can unknowingly spread them.

[timidwarrior]

Excellent video, but that music is driving me bonkers

[dreamingrightnow]

For people (like myself) who have auditory processing problems, background music competing with a voiceover can be really difficult to distinguish. If it were at about half the volume (or better yet, not there at all) it would be so much easier to hear your content. Thx for considering.

[TheRealBalloonHead]

I did commercial landscape pest control for years.
Rule #1: if you kill off beneficial insects you inherit their jobs.

[crayfish]

I was growing tomatoes and " Wile " I was Inspecting them I found a, " Hornworm " !
But by, " Good Fortune " I Also saw a " Lizard " nearby !
The Lizard tried to hide in a Crevis in the Brick Wall.
So I put the Hornworm at the mouth of ' That ' Crevis and went back to work.
And when I Looked back the " Hornworm " was " Gone " And Only " The Lizard " was there .
And he had an Expression on his face, as if to Express that We had an understanding with
each other !
And " THAT " was " The End of the Hornworm " !

[dugldoo]

The praying mantises sit on top of my giant zinnias and Mexican sunflowers and pick off the monarch butterflies, so I have to relocate them to plants visited by the invasive white cabbage butterflies. I too usually let a couple of the black swallowtail caterpillars mature even though they wreck the parsley and dill.

[DK-zutt]

Praying mantises are my favorite. They have eye spots, instead of eyes, but they will watch you, and they are friendly, they will crawl on you. I have found them as babies and brought them to my garden on my shoulder. LOVE them.

[dorothymcgee]

At another house, we would have a lot of Praying Mantis' get themselves trapped in our bathtub upstairs. I'd put my hand in front of them every time that I found them, and they'd walk right onto my hand. I'd take them outside and put them in a safe place and they'd walk right onto wherever I put them. They're great for the garden, but I've always believed that there is something more in the way of intelligence to them because of that.

[RepublicTX]

Squash vine borers are a menace where I live outside of Houston. I went to war on them this year and won. Squash coming out of my ears and I'm playing zucchini fairy dropping the blasted things off on the neighbors. I have frozen, dehydrated and eaten so much squash that I probably won't grow it for 5 more years. For over two months I've had to de-egg my plants. I wrap a piece of shipping tape around two or three fingers, sticky side out, and inspect every leaf and stem on every plant every single day. Tap any eggs and the tape pulls them off. On really bad days, I removed over 300 eggs from 5 plants. Crazy! Of course, I missed a few eggs and had two plants that got grubs in the stems. At the first sign of a hole or frass on the stem, out comes the chicken injector with a nice big dose of BT right into the stem and it's bye bye grub. Injecting BT is much easier on the plant than slicing the stem to find the grub. Injecting BT is much easier on the plant than slicing the stem to find the grub. Some people do pre-emptive strikes and adopt a regular injection schedule, but I'm cheap and don't want to use the BT unless I have to.

[christygarcia]

I don’t cook much with parsley. I grow it just to feed the swallowtails! And I will never kill another katydid. I thought they were as destructive as the grasshoppers. I learned some things here. Thanks!

[jennifersvitko]

My grandmother used to pick off tomato hornworms off her tomatoes all the time. The only time she didn't was when one had long "pod" like things on it's back. The sure sign of a parasitic hornworm wasp. She let that one go to create more hornworm predators.

[trysmarter]

The tomato hornworm is adorable when it turns into a that flying shrimp/hummingbird thingy (Sphinx Moth). One visited some larkspur I grew a couple years ago. I'm trying tomato plants this year, but I won't have the heart to kill those cute 'lil things.
I've been plagued by aphids on my lupines, but I've found that by using the misting setting on the hose and gently holding the tips of the flowers and spraying all along the length of the affected area, I can control the aphids without destroying the flowers. No pesticides, but I only do this early in the morning so as to give the lupine the day to dry out.

[johnliberty]

I watch Gardening channels all day everyday between news videos and garden work. I just found your channel and this video is absolutely the most informative video I have watched, I need to learn my insects. I resisted using pesticides last year and this year I am overwhelmed with beneficial insects that were missing last year. I need to learn these insects

[ANPC-pivu]

Additions for the list: Bumble Bee, Damsel Fly, Assassin Bug, Crane Flies, Sweat Bees, Fire Flies, Soldier Beatles (easily mistaken for bad bugs such as stink bugs, but are pollinators), Ground Beetle, centipedes, millipedes, and pill bugs (though they are actually crustaceans, not bugs)

Springtails are also good as long as they stay in the soil and ground litter. They only are bad if over watering is damaging the plants or if freshly sprouted seedlings are the only food available. They eat rotting material and help prevent molds.

[connieyoung]

Parasitic wasps and certain types of ground bees do a great job controlling tomato worms. I was glad when you mentioned paper wasps. They are great for pest control in the garden. They really help keep the bugs under control. They usually are not very aggressive, but they can give a very painful sting.

[marszenka]

I was bitten by some variety of Asian lady beetle when I lived in Hawaii. I wasn’t even bothering it; it landed on my hand and I went “aww, a ladyb—OW!”. Surprising how much that stung.

[IntegratedPestManagement]

Squash vine borer..so bad! Also, your stink bug photo is a squash bug. Stink bug is more compact and has the distinct 'shield' shape. Great list!

[barry]

Thanks I’m watching from Australia, I had a laugh when you showed the mixed beetle lava. The reason is I care for 3 pure desert dingoes and they live in a large 600 msq enclosure with wet land type of flora. Well we get lots of those white larva and believe it or not the 2 female dingoes sniff them out !! They will sniff around undisturbed ground, locate them around 2-3” below the surface dig them out and dine on them. Not just 1 either I watch them tracking them down and getting a few in a square metre. And they love them, if I find them digging I feed them to the dingoes. Thanks for the vid

[larrynancymeyer]

Good video, kept me watching as a bug gal, I have been observing, photographing bugs for many years.Found your video informative and great pictures along with the video. We'll done.

[robbycassidy]

FYI, the American Lady bug bites, too!