The Good, the Bad and the Buggy

Bugs! Most of us got over liking them somewhere around the age of 12 after the ant farm went belly up and we began to appreciate how annoying mosquitoes, wasps and chiggers could be. Then as adults, we learned to despise roaches, gnats and the beetles that feast upon our gardens. But as many of you already know, some of those pesky bugs can actually be good for the garden. Not all beetles are bad with ground beetles doing their part to help develop fertile soil. Honeybees are important in the pollination process in our gardens and many of their more fearsome cousins love to eat caterpillars and other insects that devour the leaves of our favorite trees and shrubs. Of course, we all love ladybugs dining out on aphids, we just have to get over their tendency to congregate in our windowsills.

In the meantime, here's a brief primer on good bugs and what they do to help us out in the gardens at Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC, and in your garden at home: