• Sidebar: Which Bugs Are Good For Your Garden? On a sunny
afternoon in the herb garden, you pause and lean closer to smell
a flower, check on a new transplant, and pull a weed. Suddenly
you notice dozens of aphids working on the new leaves of your
oregano, but before you have time to worry, you see that help is
on the way. Other bugs are also roaming the plants, apparently
feeding on the pests. Most gardeners realize that many kinds of
insects in a garden can be beneficial in managing the damaging
kinds that also occur there. Many can recognize the more
familiar ones—lady beetles, green lacewings, even some of the
parasitic wasps that dine on garden pests. Not often, however,
do gardeners give much thought to the needs or cultivation of
these naturally occurring biological controls. Beneficial
insects have environmental needs that parallel our own: a good
place to raise their young, food to sustain the young and the
adults, a bit of shelter, and freedom from harmful gardening
practices. Fulfilling these need