No garden is free of pests. Fortunately, you can take back your garden! The use of beneficial insects has become a great solution to reduce the use of pesticides in the garden.

First, try to identify the problem:

• Identify the host plant (the one that’s infected and that you’ve found the damage on).
• Look at the damage. Is the damage a sign or symptom? A sign is a part of the bug left behind, such as an egg case or part of the bug. A symptom is a bite mark. Perhaps an insect has chomped off the edges from the leaves of your plant.
• Where did the damage occur? On the high or low areas of the plant?
• Once you’ve answered these questions, you can go to a reference and identify the harmful insect.
• It’s not always easy to tell what’s causing the issue. You can always bring in a fresh sample to English Gardens, and our experts will be able to tell you and offer solutions. 

Here are a few common problems and insects to control them:

Here is a selection of insects that English Gardens offers that keep your garden healthy:

Ladybugs

• Eat aphids, mealy bugs, scale, leaf hoppers and other destructive pests.
• Both the adult beetle and the larvae will feed on pests that are not too hard shelled, too fast moving or too large.
• Lady beetles may fly away soon after release. This can be prevented by evening releases. This gives them a chance to settle down overnight.

Nematodes

• Nematodes can be used to control a wide range of insects that attack plants in concealed environments, such as root zones, tree galleries, thatch of lawns, bark cracks, crowns of plants and corn tassels. Some of the insect pests that are infected and killed by these nematodes are carpenter worms, some immature stages of fruit flies, larval codling moths, some beetle larvae, cabbage root maggots, cutworms, wireworms, pecan weevil larvae and weevil larvae.
• Nematodes are effective against grubs and the larval or grub stage of Japanese Beetles, Northern Masked Chafer, European Chafer, Rose Chafer, Fly larvae, Oriental Beetles, June Beetles, Flea beetles, Bill-bugs, Cut-worms, Army worms, Black Vine Weevils, Strawberry Root Weevils, Fungus Gnats, Sciarid larvae, Sod Web-worms, Girdler, Citrus Weevils, Maggots and other Dip-tera, Mole Crickets, Iris Borer, Root Maggot, Cabbage Root Maggot, and Carrot Weevils.
• Beneficial Nematodes are microscopic and live below the soil surface and like a moist environment.
• Nematodes do not harm worms, birds or plants. They seek out and eat grub larva, remaining effective up to 2 years.

Praying Mantis

• A Praying Mantis will eat a wide variety of insects: Beetles, grubs, caterpillars, aphids, and grasshoppers – almost anything that moves.
• The Praying Mantis will attack just about any insect on its path. The Praying Mantis will only complete one life cycle per season. One egg case will yield about 50 to 400 adults (the average is 200). Unless you can find the small mantis, it is almost impossible to tell if the egg cases have actually hatched.

Mason Bee

• Female mason bees emerge in early spring and immediately begin to forage for pollen and nectar, which they collect from fruit trees, berries, flowers and vegetables.
• They pack this food into the far end of their nesting cavity until they decide there’s enough there to feed a young bee. Then she lays an egg and seals up the cell. This process continues until the bee has filled the entire chamber with a series of pollen/nectar/egg cells.
• Mason bees are very effective pollinators. Just two or three females can pollinate a mature apple tree! 

Leafcutter Bee

• The leafcutter bee is a productive pollinator for summer gardens and flowers. The female carries pollen on the underside of her hairy abdomen, and then scrapes the pollen off within her nesting hole.
• Because the pollen is carried dry on her hair, it falls off easily as she moves among blossoms. This results in significantly more pollinated flowers than her cousin, the honey bee, who wets the pollen so it sticks to the legs during transport to the hive.
• These hardworking creatures will fly up to two miles from their hive to find nectar and can carry almost half their weight in pollen. To protect bees and other pollinators, reduce the use of insecticides in your garden.

Mason and Leafcutter Bee Houses are available for purchase, as well as a certificate to have the bees shipped to your home. We offer the BeeWorks Cabin, which is a complete kit that features a cedar cabin house, reusable wood trays, complete accessories and mason and leafcutter bees.

Kids are often intrigued and excited about bugs; getting them involved may be a great way of getting them off the computer and into the fresh air. Make sure to visit our events page to learn more about our upcoming Pollinator Giveaway weekend, which includes a ladybug giveaway and free in-store seminars. Watch our video to learn more.