Top 10 Beneficial Garden Bugs

Garden plants attract insect pests by the dozens, from aphids to slugs. But before you reach for an insecticide, take another look at the insects in your planting beds. While the pests are devouring your squash and tomatoes, another wave of garden bugs is coming to the rescue. Beneficial garden bugs prey on the pests gardeners detest, keeping insect populations in check.

Pros and Cons

There are, of course, pros and cons to purchasing garden bugs to attack insects that you don't want in your garden. On the plus side, garden bugs are easy and affordable most of the year, they eat many different kinds of pests, and they are particularly effective against insects that attack perennial plants, like yarrow, according to Michelle Cook, a former greenhouse coordinator at Red Butte Garden in Salt Lake City, Utah. Garden bugs, which are easy to release most of the year, are also much more environmentally friendly than insecticides, and they can be as or more effective at killing pests.

On the minus side, garden bug eggs can take one to two weeks, or longer, to hatch and start feeding on your pests, and some varieties of adult garden bugs will disperse and not stay long in your garden. Also, some garden bugs are so voracious that they'll eat just about any other insects in your garden, even helpful ones like ladybugs.

If you do decide to use garden bugs, it's important to learn which types are best to eliminate the pests in your garden. Introducing the wrong garden bugs may have no effect on your insect pest population. The sections below describe which garden bugs to use based on what kinds of pests you are trying to fight.

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Green Lacewings

The delicate green lacewing on a green leaf — The offspring larvae of the green lacewing can feast on about 200 aphids a week.
Whitney Cranshaw / Bugwood.org

Most of the beautiful adult lacewings feed on pollen, nectar, and honeydew. Green lacewing larvae, however, are voracious predators. Nicknamed "aphid lions," the larvae do an impressive job of devouring aphids by the dozens. Larvae hunt for soft-bodied prey, using their curved, pointed mandibles to stab their victims.

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Lady Beetles

Lady beetle larvae are known to eat 50 aphids a day.

Debbie Hadley / WILD Jersey

Everyone loves a ladybug, but gardeners hold them in especially high regard. Lady beetles eat aphids, scale insects, thrips, mealybugs, and mites—all the pests gardeners despise. With lady beetles, you get more bang for your buck, because both the adults and the larvae feed on pests. Lady beetle larvae look like tiny, colorful alligators. Learn to recognize them, so you don't mistake them for pests.

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Assassin Bugs

Assassin bugs feed on a variety of pests (and some other beneficials, too).

Susan Ellis / Bugwood.org

Assassin bugs know how to take care of business. These true bugs use trickery, disguises, or just plain brute force to capture a meal. Many assassin bugs specialize in certain kinds of prey, but as a group, assassins feed on everything from beetles to caterpillars. They're fun to watch, but be careful handling them because they bite—hard.

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Praying Mantises

Praying mantis stands with arms ready to snare prey.

Tim Santimore / Photolibrary / Getty Images

Contrary to popular belief, it is not illegal to harm a praying mantis. But why would you want to? Praying mantises can handle even the largest pests in the garden. You need a good eye to spot one because their coloration and shape provide them with perfect camouflage among the garden plants. When the nymphs hatch, they're so hungry they sometimes eat their siblings. In fact, praying mantises are generalist predators, meaning they're just as likely to eat a helpful lady beetle as they are to catch a caterpillar.

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Minute Pirate Bugs

Minute pirate bugs, tiny as they may be, do their part to keep aphids under control.

Whitney Cranshaw / Colorado State University / Bugwood.org

You probably have minute pirate bugs in your garden and don't even know it. These plant predators are indeed tiny: Minute pirate bugs usually measure a mere 1/16 inch long, but even at that size, they can put away a good number of aphids, mites, and thrips. Next time you're in the garden, take a magnifying glass and search for them. Adults have black bodies with a white chevron pattern on their backs.

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Ground Beetles

An iridescent green ground beetle larvae feeds on a garden pest.

Susan Ellis / Bugwood.org

Don't overlook the ground beetles in your garden. Lift a stepping stone, and you might see one skittering away. The dark-colored adults often have a metallic sheen, but it's really the larvae that do the dirty work of pest control. Ground beetle larvae develop in the soil, and prey on slugs, root maggots, cutworms, and other pests on the ground. A few species will venture up a plant stem and hunt for caterpillars or insect eggs.

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Syrphid Flies

The non-stinging, nonbiting syrphid fly larvae eat aphids by the dozens.

Gilles Gonthier / Flickr

Syrphid flies often wear bright markings of yellow-orange and black and can be mistaken for bees, although they do not sting or bite. Like all flies, though, the syrphids have just two wings, so take a closer look if you see a new "bee" in your garden. Syrphid maggots crawl on garden foliage, searching for aphids to eat. They're quite good at squeezing in the curled up leaves where aphids hide, too. As an added bonus, the adults will pollinate your flowers. Syrphid flies are also called hover flies because they tend to hover over flowers.

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Predatory Stink Bugs

Predatory stink bugs will keep garden pests at bay—feeding on more than 100 species of insects.

Whitney Cranshaw / Colorado State University / Bugwood.org

Though many stink bugs are plant pests themselves, some predatory stink bugs keep pests in check. The spined soldier bug, for example, feeds on caterpillars, sawfly larvae, and grubs. Most predatory stink bugs are generalist feeders, so they might also devour your lady beetles or even their own kin. You can recognize stink bugs by their shield-shaped bodies, and the pungent odor they produce when disturbed.

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Big-Eyed Bugs

Tiny big-eyed bugs eat their weight in pests.

Jack Dykinga / USDA Agricultural Research Service

Predictably, you can distinguish big-eyed bugs from their closest relatives by looking at their large, bulging eyes. Like many other true bugs, their bodies are oval and somewhat flat. Big-eyed bugs are quite small, reaching an average of just 1/8 inch in length. Despite their diminutive stature, both adults and nymphs feed heartily on mites, aphids, and insect eggs.

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Damsel Bugs

Damsel bugs have an appetite for all kinds of soft-bodied insects.

Whitney Cranshaw / Colorado State University / Bugwood.org

Damsel bugs use thickened front legs to grab their prey, which includes aphids, caterpillars, thrips, leafhoppers, and other soft-bodied insects. Nymphs, too, are predators and will feast on both small insects and their eggs. With their dull brown coloring, damsel bugs blend into their environment quite well. They look similar to assassin bugs but are smaller.

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Hadley, Debbie. "Top 10 Beneficial Garden Bugs." ThoughtCo, Feb. 16, 2021, thoughtco.com/top-beneficial-garden-insects-1968404. Hadley, Debbie. (2021, February 16). Top 10 Beneficial Garden Bugs. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/top-beneficial-garden-insects-1968404 Hadley, Debbie. "Top 10 Beneficial Garden Bugs." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/top-beneficial-garden-insects-1968404 (accessed March 30, 2023).