The Best Bugs to Have Around

The Best Bugs to Have Around

There are plenty of insects that get into your food or cause damage to your home, but not all insects are bad. In fact, if you were to step outside your front door you would be able to find beneficial bugs in no time at all. Green Pest Services is your source for pest control in Hinsdale, but these are the bugs that you want to keep around your home.

Ladybugs

When it comes to protecting your plants from aphids, the ladybug means business. If your rose bushes are plagued with aphids, ladybugs are going to be your best friend. There are some species of ladybug that will consume as much as 5,000 aphids every day. Ladybugs also eat an insect called a scale. Scale insects love fruit trees, especially citrus trees. When farmers in California first started growing citrus trees, things were going well until they had an outbreak of scales. Scales crawl up the tree, form a dense covering that looks like cotton and then drink the sap. The citrus industry was almost lost until farmers unleashed the ladybug. Their insect problems were solved. Next time you eat an orange, you can thank the ladybug.

Spiders

Despite having eight legs and looking like a Halloween nightmare, spiders are very beneficial. If you have orb weaving spiders in your garden, you have a great thing going for you. Spiders eat huge quantities of flies, moths, mosquitoes and other insects. Besides, when it comes to mosquitoes, we can all live a much happier life knowing there are less of them around.

Green Lacewings

If you go outside right at dusk and watch the insects around you porch light, you might spot another amazing aphid killing machine. If you see a delicate looking, green insect with glass like wings, you have found a green lacewing. The adults mainly eat pollen and nectar, but as a larva things change dramatically. Green lacewing larvae have huge appetites. They spend their entire day eating aphids and mites. When a green lacewing larva attacks, it injects digestive enzymes into its prey. Within seconds the preys insides turn into soup, which the larva then drinks. If you have green lacewings around your home, the aphids won’t know what hit them.

Assassin Bugs

With a name like that, it has to cool. Assassin bugs are ambush attackers. They hide and wait for the perfect time to attack. Some assassin bugs will even cover themselves in dead insects, dust, or debris so they can hide even better. Assassin bugs come equipped with a long needle-like mouth. They use this as a weapon to strike down prey that is larger than them. Like green lacewings, assassin bugs use their needle shaped mouth to inject digestive enzymes. It doesn’t take long for a prey’s insides to turn into gumbo. Cockroaches, termites, bed bugs and grasshoppers are among their favorite food.