Not all insects are pests — many protect your garden naturally!
Here’s how to spot the good guys vs. the troublemakers:
✅ Beneficial Insects
• Ladybugs – Aphid assassins
• Lacewings – Whitefly warriors
• Sowbugs & Pill Bugs – Soil builders
• Ground beetles – Caterpillar control
🚫 Harmful Insects
• Aphids – Leaf suckers
• Mites & Thrips – Silent leaf wreckers
• Whiteflies – Mold magnets
• Locusts – Crop chompers
🌿 Natural Control Tips
• Plant marigolds & dill to attract helpers
• Spray neem oil or garlic mix
• Handpick pests, prune infested leaves
• Compost + mulch = healthy soil
Let nature do the work — garden smarter, not harder! 🌼🧄🐞
by Olmec83
22 Comments
pill bugs eat young leafy greens
T h r i p s
Useful! Now if someone could include an image of what their eggs look like, that’d be amazing too
How could you (or whoever put this together) omit the cursed vine borer?
-Someone who has lost a lot of squash plants
Big no on pill bugs. They eat leafy greens and stems of small plants
Pill bugs can live in my compost bins. But I do not let them live in my garden, they are super destructive.
Stink bugs, Japanese beatles and cabbage worms can do a tremendous amount of damage. Bees, spiders and earthworms do a tremendous amount of good.
Found this aphid infestation in my yard
https://preview.redd.it/ls4vwwsshe3f1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6237c7571b0f5a7a1618bfc963a238fdca15c53f
Newbie to gardening this year. I heard many people say never to use neem oil because its harmful to beneficial bugs. It’s like 70% of the posts and videos say dont when i broadly search neem oil and the other 30% say do. So is it good or not? Lolol
Having a small issue with what looks like white files on my pepper plants. My plants are thriving and growing fruit. Nothing too crazy but one plant they got too so bad I had to prune all the leaves off and its finally coming back.
I just brush them when I find it but I would love for nature’s natural predators to do it for me and let them get some food in my garden but dont want scare or hurt them also. I have a dill plant but it doesnt seem to be driving any of them away. I’ll have some marigolds and othersl flowers soon. Growing them all from seed right now.
How are concrete mites non beneficial?
So we’re just all cool with Ai generated slop now or?
but harmful ones aren’t necessarily harmful, because they feed the benefical bugs, right?
Forgot the darn Japanese beetles
Where is the cute lil demonic Earwig in all of this?
Ground Beetles bring grubs
Where are the slugs on this list? They are constantly eating my squash and bean starts
Bring balance to the ecosystem and allow the predator insects and arachnids to take out the pests for once instead of jumping to spray something.
What about cockroaches, box elder beetles, and millipedes?
How does a garden big guide not include hornworm, cucumber beetle, and assassin bugs? Those are my top 3 threats.
What about cicads? Bren digging up alot of them durring planting
F sow bugs and earwigs.. beneficial my Ass
What about earwigs lol