US EPA Source Reduction Assistance Grant X9-96479407- 0 SRAG - 900

A publication of the Louisville Water Company, Local Planning Team for the Wellhead Protection Plan Pocket Field Guide

US EPA Source Reduction Assistance Grant X9-96479407-0 Recognizing Beneficial SRAG - 900

Insects in the Yard

Louisville Water Company rd 550 S. 3 Street Louisville, KY 40202 502-569-3600 http://www.louisvilleky.gov/LWC

For additional copies, or more information, contact: Marsha Taylor Meyer Wellhead Protection Coordinator Louisville Water Company

Six Spotted Tiger Beetle

Winner of the Exemplary Source Water Protection Award, 2009,

American Water Works Association 2009 Outstanding Watershed Project Kentucky-Tennessee Water Environment Association

Page 12 Page 1 Good Bugs and Bad Bugs spray more in the future. Also, insects benefit your garden by Not all insects are pests, and some are actually beneficial to your pollinating your plants, helping them grow and propagate. home and garden, because they are predators to specific pests How to make your good bugs feel welcome - Beneficial insects are and prevent them from becoming a problem. This Pocket Guide more likely to remain in your garden if there is a ready food describes some common beneficial insects found in Kentucky, (and supply. While you can buy many of these predators, it's probably other states), and offers a pictorial guide to aid in identification. cheaper and more effective to encourage the ones already in your There are over one million kinds of insects, divided into thirty garden. Many beneficial insects need to sip flower nectar to different groups, called Orders. So as to simplify this guide, we survive. Plan your garden to feed beneficial insects by choosing a have ignored most scientific classifications, and instead grouped variety of plants that will bloom as many months of the year as insects, mollusks, and other arthropods, (bugs, slugs, and eight- possible. Here are some things you can do to support your legged creatures), into general groups that exhibit a set of beneficial insect population: characteristics. • Plant nectar-producing flowers to further increase the food Why is it important to recognize bugs that help us in the garden supply. Plants in the cabbage, carrot and sunflower family are and those that do no harm? To use a pesticide effectively, one especially attractive to beneficial insects. must carefully select an insecticide that is targeted for the • Control ants, which may prevent predators from controlling specific pest. In using a pesticide, often other bugs-- those that aphids. do no harm to the garden, or may even kill the pest-- are harmed. • Don't use persistent, broad-spectrum, contact insecticides. To reduce the use of pesticides, pay close attention to actual bug These provide only temporary pest control and are likely to that is a nuisance. In many cases, if you can wait, or use a non- kill more of the natural enemies than the pests. When their chemical control targeted for the specific pest, nature will allow enemies are gone, pest populations may soar and become more these bug predators into your lawn to naturally remove the pest. of a problem than before they were sprayed. We would like to attribute • Cover bare dirt in your garden with mulch of dead leaves or many of the photos, text, and grass clippings, thick enough to shade the soil surface. This general information to the provides shelter for spiders, which are the number one University of Kentucky’s predator on insects. (Most of these spiders are tiny.) Department of Entomology Don't forget the birds - Birds Critter ID and ENTFacts can also be very helpful with section of their web site. We controlling pests in your garden. would also like to thank the Trees, shrubs with berries, University of Kentucky’s birdhouses and water features Cooperative Extension Service The Ant Lion preys on pests in the all encourage birds to visit your for their advice and aid in garden. This picture shows an ant yard. Bug-eating birds include developing this Pocket Guide. lion many times its real size.. Bluebirds, Cardinals, Grosbeaks, Beneficial and benign insects are listed as bugs that crawl, those Nuthatches, Orioles, Sparrows, that fly long enough to get from one plant to the next, those that Swallows, Titmice, Warblers, Purple Martins eat many harmful hop, and those that fly. This is not a complete listing, but a and Woodpeckers. bugs in our yards.

Page 2 Page 11 listing only of the most commonly found beneficial and benign bugs in Kentucky. Pest bugs are listed in SRAG 1000. Some of the bugs listed below may be considered pests inside the home. More detailed explanation about these bugs may be found within the Homeowner’s Guidebook of Native Plants, Integrated Pest Management, and Pollution Prevention. Information about obtaining a copy of this guidebook is listed at the end of this Scoliid Wasps Specid Wasp – Cicada Killer Mud Dauber Wasp booklet. Pocket Guide to Kentucky’s Common Beneficial and Benign Bugs Crawling Bugs

Potter Wasp Spider Wasp Tiphid Wasp

Acrobat Ant Gray Field Ant Pavement Ant Louisville Water Company 550 S. 3rd Street Louisville, KY 40202 Velvet Ant 502-569-3600 Also See “Pocket Field Guide – Landscaping for Wildlife – The Butterfly Garden”, SRAG 700

The concept of a pest is based on human purposes and Ant Lion Eastern Hercules Beetle Big-headed Ground perceptions. Under this criterion, a pest is an organism that has Beetle characteristics regarded by humans as injurious or unwanted. Usually, an organism is identified as a pest because it is harmful to agricultural activities or the ecosystem, or carries germs within human habitats. Examples include those organisms that vector human disease, such as rats and mosquitoes. The term may also include fungi and viruses.

How to Promote Beneficial Bugs in Your Garden Caterpillar Hunter Ground Vivid Metallic Ground Woodland Ground Beetle Think before you spray a pesticide - You may kill the insects that Beetle Beetle are helping you keep pests in check. This means you will have to

Page 10 Page 3

Rove Beetle Common Stag Beetle Elephant Stag Beetle Mayfly Midges & Gnats Scorpionfly

Platycerus Stag Beetle Cincindela Tiger Beetle Six-spotted Tiger

Beetle Crane Fly Drone Fly Flower Fly

House Centipede Hemiscolopendra Scolopocryptops Centipede Centipede

Hover Fly Tachinid Fly Paper Wasp

Soil Centipede Daddy-long-legs Milllipedes

Yellowjacket Brachonid Wasp Chalcidid Wasp

Predatory Mite Big-eyed Bug Large Milkweed Bug

Cuckoo Wasp Ichnuemon Wasp Pelecinid Wasp (stingless)

Small Milkweed Bug Long-necked Seed Bug Sowbug or Roly-poly Page 4 Page 9

Podabrus Soldier Lightning Bug, Firefly Caddisfly Springtail Spiders Arrow-shaped Spiders Beetle Beetle

Bola Spiders Orb Weaver Spider Crab Spiders Damselfly Narrow-winged Damselfly Broad-winged Damselfly

Fishing Spiders Grass Spiders Jumping Spiders Spread-winged Dobsonfly Green Darner Dragonfly Damselfly

Furrow Spiders Wolf Spiders Arboreal Stink Bug

Common White-tailed Banded Pennant Dragonfly Green-eyed Skimmer Skimmer Dragonfly Dragonfly

Spined Soldier bug Two-spotted Stink Bug Horsehair Worm

Fishfly Green Lacewing Brown Lacewing

Page 8 Page 5 Clumsy Flyers Hopping Bugs

House Cricket Tree Cricket Camel Cricket Wheel Bug, (Assassin Bug) Bee Assassin Bug Corsair Assassin Bug

Cave Cricket Mole Cricket Katydid

Pselliopus Assassin Bug Spined Assassin Bug Zelus Assassin Bug

Long-horned Grasshopper Pygmy Grasshopper Short-horned Grasshopper Flying Bugs

Convergent Lady Beetle Pink Lady Beetle Yellow-spotted Lady Beetle

Bumble Bee Carpenter Bee Halictid Bee

Annual Cicada Periodical Cicada Carolina Mantid

Honey Bee Goldenrod Leatherwing Margined Leatherwing Louisville Water Company 550 S. 3rd Street Beetle Beetle Louisville, KY 40202 502-569-3600 European Mantid Page 6 Page 7