sustainable gardening

Scary Bugs (And Why You Shouldn’t Be Afraid)

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Eek! It’s a bug!

I know most folks don’t like creepy-crawlies. Bugs aren’t their thing. Mine, yes, but this is what I do – help people deal with garden pests and protect good bugs.

Some good guys do look scary, like something out of a sci-fi movie with spikes and fangs and ridges and crazy colors.   

But looks aren’t everything. In most cases, these are good bugs – what we call beneficial insects – that help to control the few bad dudes in your garden.  

Let me introduce you to a few bug friends that aren’t beauties but do a beautiful job of controlling harmful pests.  

Assassin bugs get a bad rap simply because of their name. We’re talking James Bond, right?  

an assassin bug is a cloudy-gray color with a hump on its back
Scary-looking assassin bugs are efficient predators. Photo: Photo: Johnny N. Dell, Bugwood.org 

That’s a good thing. Assassin bugs are efficient predators, but boy, do they look scary. Battleship grey with spikes down their backs, they look like they’re wearing armor.  

But the battle is mostly one-sided. Insects that cross an assassin bug’s path likely will get skewered by its lance-like mouthpart and slurped dry.  

Stop shuddering. There’s an upside. 

Assassin bugs eat almost any bug, making them ecological balancers that keep insect populations in check. Plus, they enjoy snacking on Japanese beetles, the scourge of many a garden.

Cute and beneficial, the ladybug lies at the other end of the beauty spectrum. But as youngsters, ladybugs resemble tiny orange and black alligators which often get squished because they look like they are Up To No Good.  

a lady bug larva is black and organge and resembles a miniature alligator
Spiky ladybug larvae control aphids and other pests. Photo: Whitney Cranshaw, Colorado State University, Bugwood.org

Not true. These are good guys who consume even more aphids, spider mites, scales, and other baddies than adult ladybugs. In fact, one ladybug can eat over 5,000 aphids in its lifetime. 

Many juvenile insects look nothing like their more familiar adult counterparts. So stop before you squish or spray. Snap a photo or bring a sample to your local Extension office. Most likely it’s an ally you want to protect.  

You can find your Maryland Extension office on our website. Or reach out to the certified horticulturists at our Home & Garden Information Center for help. Send a photo or question to them at Ask Extension.

Wasps get a bad rap, too, with much swatting and shrieking and fear of The Stinger. Only females have those – they’re modified egg-laying organs – and they aren’t likely to use them unless threatened.  

But most wasps are beneficial, preying on bad bugs or laying their eggs on them to feed their young. Plus, they are pollinators, protecting 1 in 3 bites of food we eat. 

a wasp visiting a white-flowering plant
Scoliid wasps lay their eggs on Japanese beetle larva. Photo: Shanon Wolf

Spiders aren’t insects – they have 8 legs, not 6 – but they give many people the willies. But spiders also are beneficial, quietly and efficiently consuming many harmful insects.  

a black and yellow garden spider in its web
Argiope spiders provide free pest control in the garden. Photo: Heather Lawhead

Beauty isn’t everything. An army of not-so-lovely-but-useful insects are your allies in the garden, protecting your plants from the 1 in 10 bugs that are actually harmful. 

So think before you squish or spray. Get us a photo or sample. We’ll identify it and give you management tips that deal swiftly with bad bugs while protecting beneficial insects. 

By Annette Cormany, Principal Agent Associate and Master Gardener Coordinator, Washington County, University of Maryland Extension.

This article was previously published by Herald-Mail Media. Read more by Annette.

Food waste reduction: It’s everyone’s job!

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Our society wastes food at every point in the food chain from farms and gardens to home kitchens, restaurants, supermarkets, food service companies, and large institutions like universities that feed  thousands of people daily. Last December I was astonished to lean about the extent of food waste at the MD Food Recovery Summit organized by the Maryland Department of the Environment. 

Surplus food is the term used to describe unsold and unused food, like crops that don’t go to market because prices are too low, perishable items tossed into supermarket dumpsters, and groceries and restaurant meals bought and not eaten. 

In 2019:

  • 35% of all U.S. food went unsold or unused 
  • 23% of all surplus food is fruits and vegetables 
  • Only 15% of Maryland’s 900K+ tons of food waste was recycled 

Why it’s a problem:

  • Huge economic and environmental costs of producing surplus food
  • 1 in 6 U.S. residents are food insecure. Surplus food can feed hungry people
  • Surplus food is the #1 landfill material (24% of landfill space) 
  • Food waste in landfills generates methane, a potent greenhouse gas that can trap 28X as much heat/mass unit as CO2
  • The value of wasted food at the consumer level is $161 billion/year
Compost, recycle, and trash bins
Food scrap collection at Maryland Day event at UM/College Park campus. Photo credit: Jon Traunfeld
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The Cure for All Your Ills Might Just Be A Native Plant

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You may know Yarrow as a great garden plant for attracting small pollinators and beneficial insects. But there’s a lot more to it than that!

Yarrow, Achillea millefolium, has been used as a medicinal for a very long time. No, we’re not talking about your great-grandmother, we’re talking about Neanderthals. Archeologists have identified yarrow among the medicinal herbs that were buried with a Neanderthal 65,000 years ago. From Asia to North America, cultures of our own species have used yarrow medicinally for longer than records have been kept. In Greek mythology, the warrior Achilles was schooled on the medicinal uses of yarrow, for whom the genus has since been named. In recent decades, ethnobotanists noted that numerous indigenous cultures around the globe were using yarrow to treat the same types of ailments, an indication that an herb is in fact probably medically active for those conditions (see table). In this millennium, these suspicions have been borne out by recent clinical trials showing: more rapid healing of flesh wounds; decreased menstrual pain; improved kidney function; improved liver function; and improvement of dry mouth in chemotherapy patients. Gee, those Neanderthals were on to something!

But is Yarrow a native plant? Again, research conducted in the new millennium has shown that what we once called Achillea millefolium is actually a cosmopolitan complex of species and subspecies. Among those, American Yarrow (Achillea borealis), arrived in North America via the Alaskan land bridge during a period of low sea level, probably within the last one million years. Since that time, it has spread across the continent, using a powerful bag of evolutionary tricks to adapt to diverse environments such as dunes, mountain tops, and mesic meadows. Populations from these different environments are genetically distinctive, and there are likely to be multiple ecotypes even within a local area. According to Weakley (2015) if you encounter Yarrow in a native meadow in the Mid-Atlantic, it is most likely the native American Yarrow. However, the similar-looking aliens A. millefolium and A. filipendulina are sometimes found in disturbed areas, especially near port cities like Washington, D.C. and Baltimore.

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