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Praying Mantis Mantises eat all kinds of insects, which can be good and bad. They are great for pest control when you have a lot of unwanted insects in and around your garden, but bear in mind that they do not discriminate between bad and beneficial bugs in their appetite!
They are named praying mantis because of the folding of their front legs, which looks like the posture of prayer. Some people mistakenly call them preying mantises, which is also somewhat accurate, given their skill as hunters.
Praying mantises are green or brown in color, have triangular-shaped heads with a compound eye on each side. They are the only insects that can turn their heads a full 180 degrees, and some species can turn almost 300 degrees without moving the rest of their bodies. They're also very sensitive to movement and can see something move up to 60 feet away. Back to thumbnail

Ladybug Ladybugs are also called lady beetles or, in Europe, ladybird beetles. Many people are fond of their colorful, spotted appearance. But farmers love them for their appetite. Most ladybugs voraciously consume plant-eating insects, such as aphids, and in doing so they help to protect crops.
Ladybugs lay hundreds of eggs in the colonies of aphids and other plant-eating pests. When they hatch, the ladybug larvae immediately begin to feed. By the end of its three-to-six-week life, a ladybug may eat some 5,000 aphids. Back to thumbnail

Braconid wasp parasites If you ever see a large caterpillar covered in tiny white oval eggs, leave it alone! These are the cocoons of the tiny Braconid wasp. The female wasp has used her ovipositor to lay eggs just under the skin of the unlucky hornworm. As the eggs hatch, the larvae feed on the hornworm’s viscera–literally eating a hornworm alive. The larvae chew their way out through the host’s skin when they mature. Once outside, the future wasps pupate, spinning the tiny oval cocoons that look like insect eggs along the external back and sides of the worm. When the adult wasps emerge from the cocoons, the already weakened hornworm will soon die, thus preventing any further defoliation on tomato plants.
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Spider Spiders are abundant and widespread and, best of all, a natural controller of insect pests. Spiders are beneficial predators and serve a significant role in keeping populations of many insect pests in check.
Spiders use various tactics to capture prey. Web building spiders use their webbing to ensnare; other species are hunters that actively search for their food. Without spiders our world would be overrun by insects. And spiders are a food source for birds and other small mammals, especially during winter and spring. Back to thumbnail