Top 5 Beneficial Insects and Worms for Your Garden & Make Them Feel at Home

We all like to enjoy the beauty of the ever attractive flowers in the garden. That captivating scene is very pleasing. As gardening is a significant addition, it is imperative to have the proper knowledge about it. Many insects appear on the soil and leaves of the plants, some of which may be friends, and some may be harmful. Today's content is to identify them. So, let's get started.

01

Ladybird

The Ladybird, also known as the Ladybird Beetle or Ladybug, is one of the top beneficial insects of plants. 

• These spotted insects can eat up to 50 aphids per day, and their larva can eat up to their total body weight per day, meaning they eat more food than mature ladybugs.
• Ladybirds use a highly efficient biological pest control approach.  They eat harmful insects like greenflies, blackflies as well as their larva. Ladybugs have more to eat as soft-bodied and plant-eating insects such as scales, mites, whiteflies and thrips. They also like to eat flower pollen. So ladybugs are very important for gardening to reduce the incidence of pests. So it is essential to make sure that they have enough food to attract them to the garden.
• Ladybirds' favourite plants are Marigold, Cosmos Dill, Calendula, Angelica, Caraway, Status, and Fennel. If the growth of pollen-eating plants seems to be a matter of many waiting and flowering becomes difficult, then buying larva packs of live ladybugs and spreading them on the plants may be a good option. This can be identified as an effective and convenient option for general tenants and commercial farmers. But amateur gardeners can do this by finding and collecting ladybirds. 
• They belong to the Coccinellidae family. There are more than 5,000 species of ladybugs, including orange, yellow, brown, red and black, with a large number of polka-dotted on the wing cover, and they are grown up to 10mm.
• Ladybugs are considered poisonous to birds, as are their brightly coloured advertisements.  However, they are considered essential members of the garden's food chain because of their aphid-eating needs and tendencies. These appear in early spring, which is a good reason for the growth of nettles. Ladybugs can eat anything as a result of the nettle aphids being quick.

02

Bee

The Bees such as honey bees, carder bees, bumblebees and most other bees play a significant role in excellent pollination.

• Bees are crucial for the environment and especially for fruit production. Several plants rely on bees and hoverflies for pollination, such as apples, peaches, plums, cherries and nectarines. Also, pollinators are required for fruitings such as raspberries, strawberries, grapes, and blackberries for many soft fruit plants. As the United Kingdom Soil Association stated, the value of insect pollination in crop production is £ 690 million per year. Unfortunately, the number of bees is declining day by day due to pesticide application, habitat loss, and climate change.
• The bees, which play a crucial role in pollination, also provide honey simultaneously. Honey is rich in beneficial ingredients such as vitamins, carbohydrates, minerals, amino acids, organic acids and enzymes. There have been many claims about the benefits of honey, many have not yet been proven, but it goes without saying that honey is undoubtedly a natural food product. Bees also provide wax which is used to make a variety of consumables, such as candles, crayons, cosmetics, wood and leather polishes.
• Bee pollinators have been thriving for millennia, ensuring food and nutrition, maintaining a balance of living ecosystems for plants, humans and, of course, bees. They are playing a leading role in preserving biodiversity.
• Bee sight prefers bright colours. So the best way to attract bees to the garden is to plant colourful flowers. They are mainly attracted to these colours like yellow, purple, blue.
• Another good way to attract bees is to keep the flowers in clusters instead of scattering them. They like it very much.
• It can be said that one-third of the food that people eat every day depends on the pollination of bees, various insects, birds and bats.
• Bharatbhai from Valsad in Gujarat is a prime example of how bee pollination helps increase yield as well as productivity. He raised his crop yield by up to 80 per cent, enabling him to earn an additional Rs 7,700 in just one year.

03

Praying Mantis

The Praying Mantis looks like part of a sci-fi picture from the nineties, but the role of this insect in the garden is not insignificant. Praying mantis plays a significant role as an efficient eliminator.

• The praying mantis is recognised as an extreme predator that responds so quickly to its prey that it does not release a single fly landing nearby. A prayer mantis acts as a skilled exterminator if other insects are about to destroy the garden.
• They love to eat so much that they eat beneficial and harmful insects without judging. They do not hesitate to eat themselves when there is an extreme food crisis.
• An immature mantis prefers to eat soft-bodied insects such as caterpillars, honey bee, etc. A mature mantis is capable of eating more giant insects such as crickets, beetles, grasshoppers, etc. These insects are harmful to the garden. However, Mantis can also hunt at night.

04

Earthworm

The Earthworms are well known for being the friend of the gardeners.

• Of course, the presence of earthworms in cultivable land is beneficial.  The earthworm makes humus. Humus refers to dark brown and black soil.  In this soil, the plant can receive its essential nutrients.
• Earthworms also create holes in the soil through which the ventilation is smooth, and they are able to form an effective soil structure.
• Earthworms are rich in phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium, which minerals have significant value for plant growth. The earthworm helps in the growth of plants by mixing the minerals with the soil, which are calcium, sulfur and iron.
• Stalks, grass cuttings, animal manure, and semi-rotten compost will attract earthworms to live, be active as well as thrive in the garden.
• Earthworms act as small plows in nature. Holes made by earthworms help in conveying water, air and light to the soil up to the root of the plants and also help the plants to grow.
• Earthworms can break hard soil pans; these hard pans are not suitable for hard soil cultivation.  They are capable of making holes up to about 6 feet deep in the ground. After the death of the earthworm, its protein-rich body helps to increase the fertility of the soil as nitrogen fertilizer.
• The earthworm eats organic matter from leaves, grass, etc. and releases excrement, which is used to make vermicast. This vermicast is mixed with humus, potassium nitrate and micronutrients to form a germ-rich 'organic fertilizer'.

05

Spider

The Spider is an insect that most people do not like. But even if they don't like it, spiders are indeed beneficial for gardening.

• They never eat a particular insect, but they do help maintain a natural balance. Many insects are trapped in spider webs, including blackflies, greenflies, etc. So it is true that spiders are beneficial for plants.
• Many species of spiders live in the vicinity of plants in the garden. They are easily found on the net. Several species of spiders live in the ground and are not always seen, but they are mainly predatory spiders.
• Several spiders, such as crab spiders and wolf spiders, are considered highly efficient predators. Such predatory spiders first make a shallow hole and then roam the garden searching for prey. Once a juicy slug falls within reach, they push it into the hole. Crab spiders can disguise themselves and mix with flowers so that prey can come and catch them on their own. Some spiders hunt during the day and some at night. A jumping spider is a type of spider that hunts in daylight and mainly eats flies.
• The advent of different types of shrubs, trees, and flowering plants is enough to attract spiders to the garden.
• In the early spring, garden spiders are involved in the removal of insect pests. During this time, they wake up from their dormancy and actively continue their work (which is when the insects wake up at about the same time), feeding them throughout the growing season.
• Spiders help reduce the transmission of pathogens to plants by harmful insects.
• Most spiders bite after being induced. If someone goes to clean their net and is bitten by a spider, the place will be swollen and itchy for a while. Like garden spiders are not dangerous to humans.

It is needless to point out how the count of these beneficial insects are decreasing day by day, disrupting the ecology of our garden. So, the least we can do is stop the usage of pesticides and also chemical fertilisers in our garden. 

So as mentioned, all the above insects are beneficial to plants and help keep plants free of germs, increase soil fertility, and eradicate small insects that eat plants; these are ground beetle, lacewing, hoverflies, parasitic wasps, soldier beetles, minute pirate bugs etc.

As a caution, please be mindful that all the insects mentioned in the list are no exception and have their very own defence mechanism. Especially, when you find a new type of spider in your garden don't forget to identify the exact species and decide whether to welcome it in your garden or not. But it is also worth noting that they do not tend to attack human beings unless disturbed.