As a truck driver, I was glad to see you included the Spotted LANTERNFLY in your bad bug list. We had training on this destructive insect and what to look for on our truck and trailer because they are notorious hitchhikers and we truckers can unknowingly spread them.
@Spots Corner - I am in an area of PA that was one county over from the lantern fly original infestation, so I have been dealing with them for over five years. At this time of year (late April early May), the lantern fly eggs are hatching, and that is the easiest time and way to deal with them on trees. We simply use flypaper that is nine inches wide and comes on a roll, and we put a band of that on the tree trunks with the sticky side out. The newly hatched lantern flies will fall out of the tree and climb the trunk, eventually getting stuck on that sticky band starting from the bottom up; they will crawl their dead ones to stick onto parts of the tape that are still uncovered. And sticky bands work for all stages of their life cycle, but you have to have fresher sticky stuff as they get older because their legs are more able to get them free if the adhesive isn’t as strong. If a bunch of adults are congregated on a tree trunk, you use that same sticky tape but instead of only having a band on the trunk you also walk up to them with some tape stretched between your hands and you get them stuck to the tape by their wings; they might actually jump into the tape as a maneuver to evade getting attacked, so don’t be surprised by that. Once they have their wings stuck, they tend to not get free (I saw one on one occasion that was without wings). The eggs can be scraped off tree trunks and branches (and other things like lampposts) early in spring. Trees can also be treated with systemic insecticides so that the lantern fly ingests insecticide as it eats off the tree. So trees aren’t really at great risk to being decimated by lantern flies if someone is using those methods. It’s plants such as roses and grape vines that are favored by lantern fly nymphs that are more likely to be devoured (especially grapes). Keeping the lantern flies away from these plants is important. There are other things being done to control the lantern flies, but it’s important to know what’s simple and yet very effective and also inexpensive.
For people (like myself) who have auditory processing problems, background music competing with a voiceover can be really difficult to distinguish. If it were at about half the volume (or better yet, not there at all) it would be so much easier to hear your content. Thx for considering.
@@itzReverlynn at the beginning his audio was great. Then it changed. Makes it almost impossible to understand. Sure you can read it with that cc button but you'll be losing the pictures he's putting up
I so agree with you. It is very aggravating when I'm trying to listen to someone or something very interesting or important to me and can't understand what they're saying 12:26
At another house, we would have a lot of Praying Mantis' get themselves trapped in our bathtub upstairs. I'd put my hand in front of them every time that I found them, and they'd walk right onto my hand. I'd take them outside and put them in a safe place and they'd walk right onto wherever I put them. They're great for the garden, but I've always believed that there is something more in the way of intelligence to them because of that.
In my experience the females are the really calm calculating ones that will cooperate like that. They are also much larger than the males. The males have a curved abdomen and are more elusive and fearful. I was trying to save a male one at work and it kept back flipping out of my hand. The males instinctively do that because when they do eventually mate, if they don't escape fast enough the female eats them. The only way to dismount without being in her striking range is to do a backflip as hard as they can and hope they fling themselves far enough that she can't just turn around and grab them.
I have raised 4 different species of exotic mantids from L2 nymph to adulthood as pets and I can say for sure that they are not only smart, but that they can be very sociable insects with humans. They even have different personalities (even within a species). I'll give you an example. I had four Rhombodera Basalis males at one time. 2 of them were extremely social, one was ok with being handled and the fourth was just flighty. The fourth would usually jump off my hand and try to find cover. The 2 that were very friendly would come to the top of their house when I took the screen off and peek their eyes over the top of the container. Then they would stand on top and wave their raptors at me. That was their sign that they wanted me to put out my hand. Once they were on my hand, knee or shoulder, they could be there for hours. I used to put one on my knee and put Monster Bug wars on the TV and the mantis would just sit there watching with me, his little had moving around as different insects came onto the screen. Very cute.
@@JeffreyAu1 what a delightful story and experience to raise them! That's something I'd love to do at some point. I've had nice long visits with praying mantis I've come across here and there, some that wave at me as I wave at them. One that insisted on flying to the top of my head up hang out. I love them.
Praying mantises are my favorite. They have eye spots, instead of eyes, but they will watch you, and they are friendly, they will crawl on you. I have found them as babies and brought them to my garden on my shoulder. LOVE them.
One year I had an eggs sack of these on my porch, ofc I didn't realize it until they hatched and they were crawling all over the place. There were a hundred or so and I put my chairs out in the garden for them to get off lol.
I found egg sacks on three different rose bushes in my yard. I’ve spotted at least a dozen of them as I was weeding the garden. I never saw so many in one season.
I don’t cook much with parsley. I grow it just to feed the swallowtails! And I will never kill another katydid. I thought they were as destructive as the grasshoppers. I learned some things here. Thanks!
My hubby calls them leaf hoppers here in VA. I thought they were destructive as well. Proves you can learn something new and I'll leave them be as well.
Same here. I have a hard time killing grasshoppers and those who look like them anyway-- they have an intelligent look to them, to me. So I'm glad to not have to worry about this group.
Squash vine borers are a menace where I live outside of Houston. I went to war on them this year and won. Squash coming out of my ears and I'm playing zucchini fairy dropping the blasted things off on the neighbors. I have frozen, dehydrated and eaten so much squash that I probably won't grow it for 5 more years. For over two months I've had to de-egg my plants. I wrap a piece of shipping tape around two or three fingers, sticky side out, and inspect every leaf and stem on every plant every single day. Tap any eggs and the tape pulls them off. On really bad days, I removed over 300 eggs from 5 plants. Crazy! Of course, I missed a few eggs and had two plants that got grubs in the stems. At the first sign of a hole or frass on the stem, out comes the chicken injector with a nice big dose of BT right into the stem and it's bye bye grub. Injecting BT is much easier on the plant than slicing the stem to find the grub. Injecting BT is much easier on the plant than slicing the stem to find the grub. Some people do pre-emptive strikes and adopt a regular injection schedule, but I'm cheap and don't want to use the BT unless I have to.
I was growing tomatoes and " Wile " I was Inspecting them I found a, " Hornworm " ! But by, " Good Fortune " I Also saw a " Lizard " nearby ! The Lizard tried to hide in a Crevis in the Brick Wall. So I put the Hornworm at the mouth of ' That ' Crevis and went back to work. And when I Looked back the " Hornworm " was " Gone " And Only " The Lizard " was there . And he had an Expression on his face, as if to Express that We had an understanding with each other ! And " THAT " was " The End of the Hornworm " !
The tomato hornworm is adorable when it turns into a that flying shrimp/hummingbird thingy (Sphinx Moth). One visited some larkspur I grew a couple years ago. I'm trying tomato plants this year, but I won't have the heart to kill those cute 'lil things. I've been plagued by aphids on my lupines, but I've found that by using the misting setting on the hose and gently holding the tips of the flowers and spraying all along the length of the affected area, I can control the aphids without destroying the flowers. No pesticides, but I only do this early in the morning so as to give the lupine the day to dry out.
Thanks for sharing the information about the tomato horn worm. We see the sphinx moths every late afternoon. But we have never seen the hornworms. I had no idea they were the same creature.
One year at the end of the growing season I found one of the hornworms the first frost and snow was coming in a day or two and he wasn't near pupating yet so he would of died being a late bloomer. And I felt bad for it. so I put it in a 5 gallon aquarium made a mesh lid. Put a stick and dirt in it kept the dirt moist, and fed it every day going out and breaking off branches of what was left my tomato plants that were dying off. It took a week and a half to be ready to pupate. he buried himself intp the soil and all I had to do was keep the dirt not wet but moist so he didn't dry out. I did it all winter. And in the spring I heard wings flapping that sounded like a bird. He had made it through the winter. He was a white lined sphinx moth he was light brown, black, with some white and pink on his wings. Absolutely beautiful. I had to hold into him for a few more days after because it was still too cold out and then let him go. just for that experience it was worth it saving the little guy.
They are pretty adorable. Too bad they are so destructive. I don't have the heart to kill them either. Most of the ones that I have ever seen were already gotten to by parasitic wasps. Dragonflies from what I understand prey on butterflies. I think they are neat creatures, just hate the idea that they can kill butterflies. I don't kill them though.
Additions for the list: Bumble Bee, Damsel Fly, Assassin Bug, Crane Flies, Sweat Bees, Fire Flies, Soldier Beatles (easily mistaken for bad bugs such as stink bugs, but are pollinators), Ground Beetle, centipedes, millipedes, and pill bugs (though they are actually crustaceans, not bugs) Springtails are also good as long as they stay in the soil and ground litter. They only are bad if over watering is damaging the plants or if freshly sprouted seedlings are the only food available. They eat rotting material and help prevent molds.
Parasitic wasps and certain types of ground bees do a great job controlling tomato worms. I was glad when you mentioned paper wasps. They are great for pest control in the garden. They really help keep the bugs under control. They usually are not very aggressive, but they can give a very painful sting.
@@DK-zu6tt Actually, most solitary wasps can't sting, and most that can sting are completely harmless, such as the cicada killer wasp which looks terrifying and yet its sting is less painful than a honeybee... all social wasps (yellowjackets and hornets) can sting though.
I have those very large red and black wasps. I’m fairly new to the area and when I first got here they terrified me. So much that I wondered how I’d ever be peaceful outside gardening. Now I go outside all the time and work and have realized they’re really not interested in me. I did get stung by a yellow jacket when I was pulling out some weeds unknowingly near a ground nest. One flew inside my glove. It hurt but only initially, not like the time I accidentally stepped on a bee walking on the beach. That sting hurt for days!
I watch Gardening channels all day everyday between news videos and garden work. I just found your channel and this video is absolutely the most informative video I have watched, I need to learn my insects. I resisted using pesticides last year and this year I am overwhelmed with beneficial insects that were missing last year. I need to learn these insects
Here in Maryland we have cicadas EVERY year, but last year was one of the 17 year explosions. If you do another video please include the cicada-killing wasp - it looks ferocious and many people kill them without realizing what they are, but they are mostly harmless to people (only female stings and only if you grab her), while they help keep the cicada population down.
Last year I had cicada killing wasps around my house. I was terrified but luckily able to identify them and left them alone. They ARE ferocious looking.
My son got ambushed by a cicada killing wasp one time when we were on a walk…it was crazy. It popped out of the crack between the sidewalk and grass, landed on him (he was 2 at the time), he kinda brushed it and it got him
I was bitten by some variety of Asian lady beetle when I lived in Hawaii. I wasn’t even bothering it; it landed on my hand and I went “aww, a ladyb-OW!”. Surprising how much that stung.
Ha, a ventriloquist gardener. Awesome tip on the black light. My shed was infested with marmorated stink bugs last week. I sprayed them with Sevin and it made such a mess. After i got em all, (the sevin takes a while to kill em), i sprayed around the screen and opened window. The next day I check the shed window and 😱 there were bout 50 more congregating. Apparently they can slip thru around the screen. I heard of this trap that a university has recommended for yrs now so I figured I’d try it. This time I shut window n covered window from the outside so no light could get in the shed. I made a pan of soapy water and sat it on the floor up against wall, put things up against it on the sides, (3 sides altogether) hooked a drop light bout 8” over the metal pan. Nxt day I found bout 30 in the pan dead. Ive not seen any around but i keep finding them dead in a fresh pan every couple days. It really works so well, Ive decided I should make one outside too. Probably just put a light over a bucket of soapy water. Not foamy or they may crawl onto the foam n be able to crawl up the sides. 🙂
Good video, kept me watching as a bug gal, I have been observing, photographing bugs for many years.Found your video informative and great pictures along with the video. We'll done.
@Mike Dupree Great pictures, but the music was OVERWHELMING and terribly DISTRACTING! I had to strain to hear you! Gave up after watching (and trying to listen!) after 10 minutes. Would LOVE to watch/listen to it if ever you remake this without the "music". I know you put a Whole Lot into making this, for which I thank you. I just wish I could have learned from its content.
I couldn’t understand a word, which is a pity because I had hopes of learning about garden pest identification. The elevator/music on hold was more than I could stand. Please fix this, I really want to hear what you have to teach and no music is necessary.
I have to agree about the audio, Mike. The music definitely competed with your narration, but listening through my earbuds, your voice came through the left and the music came from the right. So I just removed the right earbud, and Voilà!
Narration? Either I’ve got something wrong with my ears or he isn’t speaking at all. I’m sitting here trying to figure out which are the good and bad bugs. Come on… is he really talking? All I hear is music.
My grandmother used to pick off tomato hornworms off her tomatoes all the time. The only time she didn't was when one had long "pod" like things on it's back. The sure sign of a parasitic hornworm wasp. She let that one go to create more hornworm predators.
It’s amazing what you learn about insects and the environment when you’re a gardener compared to non gardeners. Last year I had a paper wasp nest right over my garden and everyone that came into my backyard warned me to knock it down and get rid of it and I would have to explain to each person that they were beneficial to the garden and that paper wasps are not aggressive and will not go after you if you just leave them alone. When the paper wasp were that close to my garden I did not have to use any sprays or anything, the wasp took care of it all. Then they abandon their nests and you could see a huge difference in the garden. This year they have come back but they have built a nest in the front of my house this time on my front porch. Now everyone that comes over sees the nest on my front porch and starts warning me to knock it down. Lol once again I have to explain to people that there’s no reason to do that.
A natural remedy that has worked for me thus far for insect pests in my garden is tobacco leaf tea. I put the tea in a spray bottle and spray my plants as they grow. I've not had any issues with plant health and zero issues with insect pests. Love the video. Very good information. Well done. 👏
Adult Cicadas are NOT a Garden Pest, by reason of their total lack of mouthparts. They come out to mate and die, so….they cannot harm the plants (or people!). There are also Cicadas who emerge every year, so they’re not just 13 or 17 yr bugs. I enjoyed your video!
Where I live in New York, they come out every year. There are tons of them every where, I’ve never seen them in my garden/flowerbeds. Always find them on trees or climbing the wooden support beams on my carport. Pretty cool insects
Oh, I had a swallowtail eating my Rue once. Really neat to see. Rue and Dill are hardy and fast growing so it didn't hurt much. So neat to see. You should add Assassin Bugs to your good bugs list, btw. I had never seen or heard of them until I moved to East Tennessee. Some sort of pest devastated my potted flowers in only a day or two, but then the wilted plants were covered with Assassin Bugs eating the pests. They were really fun to watch. Similar to teeny tiny little red and black praying mantis, but with a more simplified forearm.
I never have tomato hornworms. The last two years i get vine borers every time i try to grow squash and zucchini. Anything else i do totally ok with all my natural pest control works. But vine borers are absolutely disastrous and frustrating.
I have experienced something interesting for two years now. I have had Japanese beetles come into my rose bush garden and start to cause issues, but because I have a suet feeder a few feet away, I have had regular old house sparrows eliminate the issue pretty quickly! They were great fun to watch as they would gobble up the beetles! I know some people don't like the sparrows, but I'm glad to have them for that reason!
Thanks I’m watching from Australia, I had a laugh when you showed the mixed beetle lava. The reason is I care for 3 pure desert dingoes and they live in a large 600 msq enclosure with wet land type of flora. Well we get lots of those white larva and believe it or not the 2 female dingoes sniff them out !! They will sniff around undisturbed ground, locate them around 2-3” below the surface dig them out and dine on them. Not just 1 either I watch them tracking them down and getting a few in a square metre. And they love them, if I find them digging I feed them to the dingoes. Thanks for the vid
Thanks for the great video on the bad and good bugs in the garden. I did kill the tomato/tobacco hornworm the first time I found them. But some of them had lots of white things attached to them. They were the eggs from the Braconid wasp, a beneficial wasp that is a gardener's friend. I usually find hornworms already loaded with Braconid wasp eggs and no longer feeding on the tomato plant because the eggs are sucking the insides out of the hornworm. The hornworms that don't have eggs, will be transferred to a wild tomato plant to give the wasp time to find it. Edit: I did want to mention that I do have an issue with the cucumber beetle that you can add to your list of bad bugs. But maybe you don't have these beetles.
Dragon flies are so fun to watch .They are 96% positive on hunting adventures. Great eyes and their bodies are so adaptable in air they seldom miss a meal. They will find a stick or branch to go back to each time they fly off hunting. They are faster than our cat and play with her, she looks for a playmate in our backyard garden in summer. They come in so many beautiful colors too.
Thank you! This was a really well done and informative video. Great pictures and descriptions made it easy to follow and yell out, "That one! I've seen that one!". I have spotted squash beetles on my tomatoes and something munching on my pepper leaves. I don't see many beetles when I check my plants, but when I do I am sure to pick it off. Not sure if those are also what's eating my pepper leaves.... I haven't really caught anything red handed on that plant yet.
People should be aware of what Soldier Beetles are. They may look intimidating and evil but they are your gardens best friend. Look them up and be thankful.
Just discovered your channel, Mike. Subscribed half way through this video. Your presentation, photography and content are excellent! I’m very fond of insects and know most of my garden buddies and baddies. In Southern Ontario I don’t have all insects that you described, but am familiar with all you presented. We have 5 and 7 year cicadas and they like my trees. Since mine aren’t in huge numbers, I enjoy their presence, their song and my grandson collects the shed casings. I’ll be watching your videos regularly now. Thank you! Greetings from Canada!🇨🇦
The praying mantises sit on top of my giant zinnias and Mexican sunflowers and pick off the monarch butterflies, so I have to relocate them to plants visited by the invasive white cabbage butterflies. I too usually let a couple of the black swallowtail caterpillars mature even though they wreck the parsley and dill.
Hey Mike, great info! I would have added the giant cicada killer hornet to the list also. Fearsome-looking, but harmless to people. That's a pretty impressive STARmeter for only three acting credits, too! My highest was 43, 683 when I was on Atlanta Homicide. When you hit 15,000 or so, you'll start getting recruitment calls. Keep up the good work. BTW, you can add these vids to your IMDb credits as well.
Thanks for the info. Re: tomato hornworms - They are easily detected by their rather large, easy-to-see feces around the bottom of tomato plants. The hawk moth adults are plant pollinators, so unless t.h.w. infestation is really heavy, I pick the t.h.w.s off the tomatoes and move them to some other solon, which they may eat. Thanks again.
Hi Mike, thank you for this excellent overview! AT 15:27, I actually culture those around my bee yards and locate their nests nearby. You're so right, they are very beneficial. I wish you all the best, and thank you for putting this video together :)
My least favorite is the assassin wheel bug. I remove my flip flops and squash those things between them without a second thought. They eat my bees and that really makes me feel hostile towards them.
I have a ton of false potato beetles here and they actually have helped me with eating up nightshade and bindweed that I can’t seem to get rid of. Very helpful little dudes
i didnt have any bugs in my garden until i posted a photo on facebook. so i find that a very interesting thought. but i sprayed the perimeter last night, but glad youtube knows about it. this was a recommend.
15:15. With exception to the nest location's ( I don't let them set up shop on my house or garage!) they are very welcome in the garden. They absolutely destroy caterpillars!
I had a dog that would hear the big root grubs under the soil, dig it up and play with it. He'd throw it up in the air several times, roll on it, just have a ball. Chickens love them.
Both squash and stink bugs are pests. We’ve been using a liquid dish soap and water mixture which seems to work really well on both. This soap/water mixture also works on cucumber beetles which are a huge problem here in Ohio.
Just discovered your channel. I like your voice and your sound advice. However, please turn your background music down. For those of us who have hearing difficulties, the loud volume is very distracting. Thanks. Wishing you the best.
I raise milkweed for my monarch caterpillars and over the year now realize the largest predator I have is the tiny black wasps that hover under the milkweed leaves and eat my eggs or eat the caterpillars. I've seen a larger variety carrying around a 3rd instar cat and I heard they inject the cats and the babies actually emerge after killing the cat?
I cannot understand how you managed to see an abundance of Monarchs but must be your location that is good. I live in Canada and rear Monarchs. 2 years ago I released 100 but last year there were very few eggs and I only managed 20. I hope this year is better.
Why didn't you include grasshoppers? I have tons in my yard, I debilitate them, then drop them into either funnel web spider's webs or black widow webs.
You should do one on the planthopper insect and also the palm weevils that kill palm trees in California and Florida. I really enjoyed your video. The combination of music and your commentary put a smile on my face.
Ever get a ladybug in your mouth? You will spit immediately. It’s the larvae that are really aggressive. It you get one on your arm it will start chewing.
Hey I think you need a Big beer trap for that large pest in the back of your yard. lol! great information and really nice music! We have a lot of trouble with those tomato horn worms - the black light idea is cool, we will try it.
@@edwardtu79themixedcontentctr I have a lot of pets that would love hornworms. I don't smoke either, and i'm not all that worried about my home tomatoes being damaged. I know they can cause a problem when farming large scale, but they are farmed and sold in the pet hobby as treats for things like reptiles and amphibians, and are easily some of the most expensive foods you can get.
At my dads every year, he gets swarmed with these asian bugs. They are more orange than red and have about 8 spots vs the 3 or 4 on the red friendly lady bug. I find lots of larvae in my garden every year and for the red ones. I watch them like an excited new parent, waiting for them to give birth to my garden angels. In my beginner gardening group, we are always sharing pics and discussing good or bad? Now we have a video to explain! Thank you! I have shared it with the group.
I also saved a few swallowtail caterpillars and placed them in a butterfly cage with parsley. They then metamorphose to chrysalis And eventually hatch into beautiful butterflys... only to come back and lay eggs on my parsley again-😄
