What Are the "Good Bugs" for a Garden?

You know that saying "If you build it, they will come"? Well, the gardener's version of this is "If you start a garden, they will come," and by "they", we mean bugs—both the bad and the good ones. We tend to stress about pests, but most of the insects in our garden spaces are actually helpful, not harmful (to the plants or to us).

In fact, only 1 out of every 10 of the most common bugs found in our backyards is a pest. The rest either don't cause any harm or actually help us out.

Today, we're focusing on these garden good guys. We've got pollinators that keep our gardens productive and beneficial insects that take care of pest problems for us. Welcoming more of these good guys into your garden is the best way to work with nature and make gardening easy, the way it should be!

A List of Beneficial Insects in the Garden

Beneficial insects fall into three groups: pollinators, predators, and parasitoids.

Pollinators

• Bees
• Beetles
• Butterflies
• Flies
• Lacewings
• Ladybugs
• Moths
• Wasps
• Hummingbirds*
• Bats*

*Obviously not an insect but very important

Predators

• Assassin bugs
• Ladybugs
• Praying mantises
• Green lacewings
• Beetles
• Hoverflies
• Minute pirate bugs
• Birds*
• Spiders**

**Technically not an insect but close enough

Parasitoids

• Braconid wasps
• Trichogramma wasps
• Tachinid flies

Let's look more at how each of these guys helps you out in your garden space and how you can attract them.

Pollinators Keep the World Growing

Pollinators are essential for wildflowers, vegetable gardens, and agricultural crops.

Sure, you know about the butterflies and the bees, but you may be surprised to learn that less-glamorous bugs like flies, beetles, and wasps can also pollinate our plants. Then, if we move outside the insect category, we also have hummingbirds and bats, which are both super important pollinators.

Let's learn a little more about our favorite pollinator types.

Bees

There are over 3,600 species of bees here in North America, so I won't even begin to name them all. Many of the bees that wiggle their little bodies into our flowers and carry pollen around are what we call solitary bees. That just means they don't live in the huge hives we associate with honey bees. Solitary bees are mostly a non-aggressive bunch. Some don't even have stingers.

One reason bees are such great pollinators comes down to the teeny tiny hairs that cover their bodies. These hairs pick up and then transfer pollen from one flower to the next. Bumble bees (you know, the super fuzzy big guys) carry out something called "buzz pollination": They hold a flower between their jaws and use their powerful wing muscles to vibrate pollen loose.

Fun fact: A single bumble bee can pollinate 5,000 plants in one day. Talk about busy as a bee!

How to Attract Bees to Your Garden

I have to say, honey bees must have much better publicists than bumble bees. While honey bees aren't actually in danger, bumble bees really are in decline. You can help these fuzzy friends out by starting a little pollinator garden in your yard or even on your patio.

Bees are drawn to brightly colored flowers that are rich in nectar and pollen. Fill your garden with anise hyssop, basil, snapdragons, lavender, bee balm, echinacea, catmint, sunflowers, borage, and zinnias. Let some of your vegetables and perennial herbs flower. Bees seem to especially love the yellow snapdragon-like flowers of bolting brassicas like broccoli and mustard greens.

Butterflies & Moths

Butterflies and their less glamorous cousins, moths, are equally important pollinators. Butterflies aren't quite as good as bees at doing the pollen dance between flowers, but we rely on them to pollinate the plants that bees skip over because they don't have enough nectar.

Most moths are nocturnal, and scientists are only recently discovering just how important these insects may be for pollinating plants at night.

How to Attract Butterflies & Moths to Your Garden

Like bumble bees, butterflies and moths aren't doing too hot thanks to large habitat loss. As many as 19% of these species are at risk of extinction, including, of course, the monarch butterfly. You can do your small part to help them out by giving them more places to find food and cover.

Butterflies love flowers that are basically like brightly colored landing pads. Try adding some milkweed, echinacea, yarrow, butterfly bush, calendula, and zinnias.

I'm sure you've heard the recent buzz about moth gardens. Moths prefer plants that release fragrance in the evening, like dianthus, honeysuckle, and jasmine.

Wasps

Wasps get a bad rap because some species are aggressive, but wasps are necessary to have around your garden space. (And most wasps don't even sting.) They keep insect populations, including pests, in check. Wasps aren't covered in little hairs like bees, so they're not all that great at carrying pollen around. Even so, they manage to drop some pollen as they fly around.

Fun fact: Just one wasp, the fig wasp, is responsible for pollinating every single fig fruit that has ever existed.

Flies

Flies, including hoverflies, are actually the main pollinators of certain plants, including apples, strawberries, carrots, mangoes, cashews, and peppers.

Fun fact: We might not have chocolate were it not for flies! These little flies called chocolate midges are one of the only pollinators tiny enough to fit inside the cacao flowers.

Beetles

Beetles were actually the OG pollinators back in the dinosaur age. Today, they pollinate about 88% of the world's flowering plants. Ladybugs are well-known pollinators, but there's also soldier beetles, blister beetles, and tumbling flower beetles. Of course, some beetles are plain ol' pests that we don't want in our gardens. Use an app or Google Images to ID any beetles you find in your garden before squishing them to see if they could be good beetles.

Bats

Bats not only pollinate plants like agave and bananas, they also help to disperse seeds. Bats, like moths, are drawn to flowers that open at nighttime. Bats are in trouble as more and more forests are cleared. A fun family project could be building a bat house to give them much-needed shelter.

Hummingbirds

These little birds visit thousands of flowers every day in their constant search for nectar. Pollen sticks to their beaks as they're drinking nectar, which means they're carrying all those little grains from one flower to another. While they're pollinating, they also eat small insects. Red tube-shaped flowers like bergamot and nasturtiums are ideal to attract hummingbirds.

Predators Take Care of Garden Pests

These beneficial insects really help us out with organic pest control. If you've got a pest in your garden, figure out what eats that pest and then try to attract it to your space to take care of the problem for you.

Green Lacewings

Adult lacewings are actually pollinators that feed on pollen and nectar. It's their larvae that are predators are soft-bodied insects like aphids and caterpillars. Lacewings are attracted to coreopsis, daisies, asters, and flowering dill.

Birds

Got a caterpillar problem? Birds are your friend. Invite more birds into your yard by setting up a little bird bath or fountain.

Ladybugs

Ladybugs may be known for being cute, but they're proverbial ugly ducklings. At the larva stage, they're actually pretty scary looking, and it's these ladybugs-in-waiting that are the ferocious predators of aphids and mealybugs. Adult ladybugs mostly just help us out with pollination. Check out this list of 15 flowers to plant to attract ladybugs.

Fun fact: One ladybug larva can eat as many as 40 aphids an hour.

Beetles

Some beetles are pests (like the Japanese beetle), some beetles are pollinators, and some are predators that eat pests, including other beetles. Ground beetles, for instance, munch on nematodes, caterpillars, weevils, thrips, slugs, and silverfish. Soldier beetles take care of Mexican bean beetles, Colorado potato beetles, and aphids.

Moral of the story: figure out which type of beetle you're dealing with before you smush.

Hoverflies

These guys look like small yellowjackets, but fear not—they don't have stingers. Like ladybugs and lacewings, the adults are pollinators, but the larvae are fierce predators. They feed on aphids, caterpillars, and thrips.

Praying Mantises

These guys eat pests like grasshoppers and the dreaded Spotted Lanternfly. Unfortunately, they also eat the "good guys" like butterflies and even hummingbirds. Overall, I think it's a good idea to keep them around (though I do not want to see one come after a hummingbird!). Certain plants like marigolds and flowering dill and cilantro attract praying mantises.

Where's a praying mantis when you need one? This grasshopper was eating my basil plant.

Minute Pirate Bugs

These beneficial bugs have a special mouthpart they use to spear pests like aphids, thrips, and mites. They'll even take care of their eggs. They have been known to also bite humans, but their bites don't cause any lasting harm.

Assassin Bugs

Like minute pirate bugs, these guys have sharp mouthparts for feeding on small insects. They're generally not aggressive toward humans but can inflict painful bites when they feel threatened. In worst cases, they can spread the parasite that causes Chagas disease. Some assassin bugs look a lot like squash bugs, so use your phone camera to make an ID before you decide to squish. I would just give these guys a wide berth if you see them.

Spiders

Spiders fall under the beneficial insects group even though they're technically arachnids. Spiders living in your garden are excellent at keeping pest populations under control. (Again, wide berth!)

Parasitic Wasps Control Pest Populations

Parasitic wasps are less direct but no less ferocious predators than ladybug larvae. Instead of eating pests themselves, they lay their eggs on bugs like caterpillars and beetle grubs—aka the "hosts". These eggs hatch, and then the larvae feed on their host. Not great guest behavior, but it helps us out, so who are we to complain?

Parasitoids in the garden include braconid wasps (which feed on tomato hornworms), trichogramma wasps (which are so tiny they lay their eggs on pest eggs), and tachinid flies (which feed on grasshoppers, Japanese beetles, and squash bugs). Again, the name wasp might freak you out, but these guys are so tiny you might not even notice them.

Basically, if you see a caterpillar covered in little white eggs, don't kill it. Move it someplace safe in your garden. The eggs will hatch, kill the caterpillar, and then turn into more helpful adults.

Parasitic wasps are attracted to umbrella-shaped flowers in the carrot family, so be sure to let your cilantro, dill, and fennel flower. They also like yarrow, alyssum, zinnias, daisies, and cosmos.

How to Attract More Beneficial Insects to Your Garden

The best way to attract beneficial insects to your space is to make your garden an inviting home. That means providing food, water, and shelter. It also means avoiding spraying things that indiscriminately kill all bugs, good and bad.

Provide Food Sources

Plant a little pollinator garden around your vegetable garden. Add more flowers to the borders of your raised beds. Grow a variety of flowers so that you've got a lot of colors, shapes, and fragrances to appeal to all kinds of different bugs. The goal is to not just bring them in, but encourage them to stick around, make themselves right at home.

Give Them a Drink

Put out a little bowl of water or install a bird bath (not just for the birds!). Make sure to change out the water daily so it's always fresh.

Avoid Sprays

Chemical pesticides kill the good bugs right alongside the bad bugs. Even organic and "safe" sprays like Neem oil can have a negative impact on beneficial insects. Think of your garden as a little ecosystem that can be managed by increasing the diversity of life inside, not by decreasing it. That's how we work with nature.

Work with the Garden's Good Guys

I hope this gives you a better idea how the many different life forms in your garden play their incredible and incredibly important parts. Your job is simply to invite more of them in. Then you can sit back and let nature take it from there.

When you stop seeing yourself as working against nature, when you stop trying to control every single thing that flies or crawls with sprays, gardening becomes a whole lot more fun and way more interesting—I promise!