Watch out for the good guys

Beneficial insects help keep the bad guys in check

With the warmer (and now, thankfully, moister!) weather well under way at this time of year, the first signs of the resulting increase in insect activity around the garden becomes evident when gardeners notice damage to the soft, new growth of ornamentals or destruction of vegie garden seedlings, usually the work of chewing insects such as caterpillars, grasshoppers, beetles or snails and slugs.

Other nasties, sap suckers such as aphids, start as indiscernibly small collections, but rapidly reproduce to become massive colonies easily seen on our late brassicas and new rose shoots.

In many cases, most gardeners react fairly predictably, reaching for some form of organic control or manufactured chemical that will destroy all traces of these garden marauders.

Trouble is, when the pest population is at its greatest rate of increase, so are the numbers beneficial insects and animals too.

If we were to leave these beneficial insects do what they do best, that is, eat or parasitise the many other destructive garden organisms, then the chances that a balance could be struck between nasties and good guys increases.

Understand that the beneficials may never rid the garden of pests completely, but certainly can keep numbers in check, which may help we humans to use methods (other than chemical) to reduce pest damage.

The following images may help you recognise actual beneficial insects (or signs of their presence) in your own garden.

It pays to simply stop and observe your garden for a few minutes – you’ll realise that there are many good guy insects quietly going about doing their good deeds, to help you overcome the bad guys without chemicals!

PHOTOS: MIKE WELLS 3 GOOD GUYS: Most ladybird beetles and their larvae are great for our gardens, as they are predators of soft-bodied pests such as aphids, scale and mealybugs. Looking a bit like mealybugs themselves (but moving much faster!), these Coccidulin beetle...

1 You’ve no doubt seen the hoverfly in your garden, its hover, dart, hover, dart flight pattern and wasp-like black and yellow abdomen (a defence strategy) drawing immediate attention. Their larvae (not unlike small maggots) prey on aphids and soft...

2 Predatory wasps are constantly on patrol in our ornamental and productive patches this time of year, however, most are quite small, so we don’t notice them too often, resulting in their demise when we spray the pests on which they’re preying. This...

4 You may notice that some of these aphids, seen on a corn stalk with their protective entourage of ants, are light brown in colour. They’re quite dead, and have been parasitised by another small braconid wasp species (see image No. 6). At least 50% of...

5 Whilst many ladybird beetles help us by reducing numbers of damaging pests, there are a few that do their bit by making a supreme effort to rid our plants of fungal diseases as well. This is a fungus-eating ladybird beetle, and it was busy trying to...

6 My last planting of brassicas (cauliflower, broccolini, sugarloaf cabbage) was frequented by an airborne squadron of these tiny wasps. At around 4-5mm long, they’d be easily mistaken for just another pesky insect in the garden. However, by standing...