Fireflies are not only fun to watch flash at nighttime but are great to have in your garden as they are predators to many pests that may plague your garden. They like to feed on other insect larvae, snails, and slugs.
There are many different types and sizes of snakes. These reptiles can be beneficial in your garden! They will happily help you with any rodent problem that you have in the garden or eat your slugs and snails. Most snakes aren’t poisonous. Quick tip to decipher between a poisonous snake and a harmless one is the shape of the head. Triangular heads are common among the poisonous snakes. Most garden snakes will be garter snakes and they are harmless to humans.
Cats can be both good and bad in your garden. Cats can help with rodent control, but be careful to keep them out of your plants. Read up on cats in the pests section for tips on how to keep them out of your plants!
Predatory Trichogramma Wasps are tiny parasitic wasps that attack insects in your garden. Trichogramma wasps lay eggs into harmful insects (especially tomato hornworms!) for your garden and kill them before the insect kills your plant.
These incredibly large insects are amazing pollinators of vegetables and tree fruits! They are extremely important to have around to help pollinate our food.
Spiders are your friends in the garden! They may look scary, but they will help you tremendously in the garden if you let them coexist with you!
Birds are one of those critters that can be both good and bad in your garden. Birds help with pest control eating a wide variety of insects including aphids, caterpillars, mosquitos, and spiders.
Dragonflies are not only a beautiful addition to your garden, but are extremely helpful predators in your garden! Dragonflies are hunters that prey upon smaller insects such as mosquitos, moths, gnats, and termites.
Worms create tunnels in soil and eat organic matter which turns into worm castings that is an incredible compost for your plants! These tunnels allow oxygen to get to roots and increase the soil quality. We also have “composting worms” in both our outdoor and indoor worm bins that turn our kitchen scraps into plant gold! Worm “poop” is one of the best fertilizers you can use in your garden, and it also contains growth hormones for plants!
Beneficial nematodes enter pests through the skin and once they are inside they release bacteria to kill the insect. These nematodes do not harm ladybugs, earthworms, or other beneficial insects and are harmless to plants and humans. Beneficial nematodes help to control countless pests including fire ants, flea beetles, cabbage root maggots, corn earworms, cucumber beetles, onion maggots, white grubs, cutworms, and wireworms.
