Insects in your yard and garden

There are a lot of creepy crawlies out there but most of them won't hurt you or your garden. By rough estimate, about 25% of the insects in your yard are beneficial, another 10% damaging, but all the rest are largely irrelevant. General insect damage can be significantly reduced simply by avoiding the use of pesticides altogether since these "irrelevant" bugs take up resources that the bag bugs would otherwise use. That said, there's always the potential for an outbreak of something. For ways to prevent insect damage, check out our Biodiversity area. If it's too late, check below for control ideas.

Insect related yard care

Before we get into a bug-by-bug plan of attack, your best bet on pest control will always be to focus on prevention. Healthy plants are more able to resist all pests better than unhealthy plants and healthy plants grow in a healthy ecosystem. Below is a list of how-to articles to make sure you start with healthy plants in a healthy yard, full of benenficial insects to help you in your battle against the bad ones! If you do have an insect problem already, skip ahead to find out who the culprit is and how to deal with it!

Beneficial insects

Click on the Articles tab in this section for detailed information on a variety of soil topics.

Nuisance and damaging insects

Insects in your yard and garden

Insect related yard care

Beneficial insects

Nuisance and damaging insects

Found anywhere (and everywhere)

On flowers

On fruits

On vegetables

On trees