Have you ever found yourself dreaming of a bug-free garden? Something like this happens to me when I find half of my favorite rose eaten by maggots or aphids sucking the life juices from the lovely host leaves. But of course, every bug has a purpose in Mother Nature’s universe.
Let’s face it: a natural, healthy ecosystem has bugs, a wide variety of bugs, including aphids. Yes, many aphids can overwhelm and destroy a fragile plant, but they also play an important role in the landscape. (I try to remember this when I find aphids crowding the underside of a leaf.)
These aphids are essential for feeding other insects, beneficial insects, that will appear in your yard to eat these aphids.
Good Bugs vs. Bad Bugs
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We humans have a tendency to divide the world into good and bad. The things that make our immediate lives easier are the good things. Those things that are immediately annoying or bothersome, are bad. But the greatest wisdom of the earth is that there is a purpose for everything, including bugs.
While pests in the garden – from mosquitoes to snakes – may worry us, each is part of the natural ecosystem. Bats eat mosquitoes (up to 100 a night) and so do birds, dragonflies and some fish. Hawks, eagles, larger snakes and hedgehogs eat snakes.
Aphids are important too!
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What about me aphids? They absorb the juices from your plants’ tender new growth and new stems, including tomatoespeppers, citrus and roses. Aphids produce a waste product called honeydewwhich attracts ants. Honeydew also promotes fungal growth and transmits plant viruses. This is all bad news for the garden.
You can always use an organic one insecticidal soap, available from Amazon. But many many beneficial insects eat aphids. These include ladybugs, hoverfliesand laces. Having aphids in your garden means that these beneficial insects will come to your yard and boost the overall health of your garden.
Benefits of garden pests
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You want to have a natural ecosystem in your landscape, including a wide variety of different bugs, some of which would be classified as pests. This is because nature contains its own checks and balances. Pests attract their natural predators, and these predators will not only help control the population of these pests, but others as well. For example, ladybugs will eat some of your aphids, but they will also kill and consume flour truck and mites.
When biologists talk about biodiversity, this is what they mean. Biodiversity in a garden refers to the variety of life forms that live there. These can include plants, insects, animals and microorganisms that all exist together in a garden ecosystem. By allowing “bad” bugs, you allow biodiversity. This biodiversity makes your garden healthier by making it resilient and supporting important ecosystem services such as fertilization and pest control.
Plants are tougher than you think
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Yes, you say, natural ecosystems and biodiversity are great, but what about the damage these pests are doing to my plants? Not a good reason to get out the pesticide spray. Almost all plants are more tolerant of pests than you think. Most can recover from leaf loss without significantly reducing their productivity. There are some tomato varieties that can lose up to a third of their leaves without affecting their fruit yield.
I know this to be true. I once had a ficus tree in the garden that started to lose its leaves one summer as a result of pests and sunlight. Most of the foliage turned yellow and fell off. But after the first cool autumn weather, new little leaf buds appeared on the branches. And, in time, the tree filled with leaves.
Long Term Benefits
Increasing the variety of insects in the garden immediately increases biodiversity. It also encourages predatory insects to come into your landscape, providing extra bird food and small mammals.
But what are the long-term benefits of learning to tolerate insects in the garden? One of them is the dramatic reduction in the use of chemicals. The more people in a neighborhood decide to allow a wider range of insects into their landscape, the less toxins are used in that neighborhood. Reducing pesticide use benefits both the plants and the people and animals living in the area.
