Don’t kill these backyard Texas bugs
It’s springtime, and bugs abound.
Flowers are blooming across the landscape, attracting butterflies and busy bees. Exterminators are making their rounds, knocking on doors, seeking out new customers.
Bugs often get a bad rap, but many of them are essential allies, playing a crucial role in controlling pests, pollinating flowers, and enriching the soil.
“Good bugs are pollinators or predatory bugs,” said local arborist Matt Petty from Davey Tree.
Know your bugs
Predatory bugs such as spiders, dragonflies and ladybugs aid in pest control by preying on harmful insects.
Pollinators are bees, butterflies, wasps and even flies, though they are often overlooked, Petty said.
By cultivating an environment that welcomes these garden guardians, we can reduce the need for pesticides.
Installing a pond or water garden is an effective way to attract dragonflies, butterflies, bees and hummingbirds, as they all appreciate having access to water for drinking and bathing. Avoid chemical pesticides.
“The mosquito mist systems that we’re putting in our yards ... that’s also impacting the butterflies and bees,” said Petty. “The same with lawn applications that are used to keep ants or other pests away. Just be cognizant that there’s a give and take when trying to manage an ecosystem artificially.”
The Memorial Park Conservancy, headquartered in Houston, suggests planting nectar-rich flowers that thrive in the city’s challenging summer climate.
Houston’s pollinators
Pollinators in Houston are drawn to a variety of popular flowers including wild bergamot, blackeyed Susan, Turk’s cap, purple passionflower, bottlebrush, buckeye and redbud.
Dragonflies: Dragonflies are voracious carnivores and eat everything that is available to them, without much discrimination between pests and pollinators. However, they excel at eliminating aphids, mosquitoes and larvae of other harmful pests. According to Texas Parks and Wildlife, there are about 70 dragonfly species native to Texas. Like the mosquitoes on which they like to feed, dragonflies and damselflies favor watery spots.
Wolf spiders: Wolf spiders are a large group of terrestrial spiders that usually don’t spin webs. Instead, these skilled and opportunistic hunters patrol the areas of their habitat and eat up pests, including small cockroaches. They bite only when provoked, and their bites generally do not require medical attention, though some individuals might have mild allergic reactions like itching or redness. Pest control specialists discourage the removal of wolf spiders from outdoor settings.
Ladybugs: These insects are so helpful to farmers that they’ve become a symbol of good luck. Ladybugs are prey on pests like aphids, known for damaging crop plants.
Bees: Honeybees alone pollinate more than $15 billion worth of crops annually, including 90 types of fruits and vegetables, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Butterflies: Like bees, butterflies love colorful, nectar-rich flowers. Include plants that meet the needs of every stage of their life cycle, food plants for egg laying andcaterpillars, spaces for forming chrysalises, and nectar sources to sustain adults.
The nonprofit Houston Wilderness organization has a program focused on planting native milkweed fields for monarch butterflies.
Texas has an important place in the life cycle of monarch butterflies, because Texas is where reproduction starts every year.