Good or bad bugs?

jtuck2 8/24/2011, 3:43 am

Just did my first garden this summer and was wondering about some of the bugs I saw crawling around.

Are earwigs good or bad for the garden? How about little green grasshoppers? They seemed to be munching my chard for awhile, but then didn't seem to be so bad.

How about those little gray things we used to call potato bugs? I don't know if they ARE potato bugs (I didn't plant any potatos)....they're shaped like half hotdogs and they have little horizontal lines on them. You can't see their legs because they're underneath.

And I saw one praying mantis...I'm thinking he's good!

I was able to deter the cabbage worms thank goodness! Good or bad bugs? 53366

littlesapphire 8/24/2011, 9:17 am

Potato bugs! I'm glad to know I'm not the only one that called them that. They're actually called pill bugs (some people call them roly polies). They eat decaying matter, but are known to eat young plants as well. HOWEVER, this post has a picture that's really startling.

I don't know a lot about earwigs, but I just looked it up and apparently they're indiscriminate eaters. Basically they eat anything and everything. Good bugs, bad bugs, dead plants, living plants.

The little grasshoppers... are those actual grasshoppers, or are you thinking about leaf hoppers?

Good or bad bugs? Leafhop1

Both will chew up your garden, but leafhoppers, at least in my yard, come in much larger quantities. Every time I walk through the garden, I get a cloud of leafhoppers flying through the air to get away from me.

And yes, praying mantises are good!

jtuck2 8/24/2011, 1:43 pm

Thanks littlesapphire!

Wow!! Those pill bugs eating the tomato leaves are amazing! And they do seem to multiply like rabbits (which we also have a lot of)....we counted 13 having a dinner party last night in our neighbor's grass volleyball court! And we had 7 in our yard in back when we got home. Good thing our garden is completely covered!

Nope, I do mean little green grasshoppers. They're about an inch to 1 1/2 inches long and slim...a perfect, smooth, beautiful lime green color (so perfect it looks like they were dipped). We also have a few larger brown ones...don't know if they're related to the green ones. One was living in my bean tower but didn't see any damage.

I must have leaf hoppers, too...at least I see clouds but they're teeny tiny things.

I'll worry about those earwigs later! Smile

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