Bugs come in many shapes and sizes, and they change those shapes and sizes in their lifetime. They also change what they eat as they change their bodies.  This makes discovering just what bug is bugging you sometimes a bit of a challenge.

I recently created and presented a talk/presentation with the same title as this post.  In fact I gave the talk several times, including for landscapers, pest management companies, and a group of beekeepers.  I highlighted the fact that for every “bug” has something out there in the world that likes to eat them. This means that when “bugs” bug us in the garden, we may need adapt our behavior.  

Cover image: Damselfly resting on a grass flower.

Siphonaptera 
      Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em,
      And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so on, ad infinitum.

         - from A Budget of Paradoxes by Augustus De Morgan, 1872
         Siphonaptera is the biological order to which fleas belong

Science Nerd Interjects – Not all Bugs are Bugs

The scientific name for the insect Order of true bugs is Hemiptera. Then there are things that are called bugs but are not true bugs, like “lady bugs” that are beetles not bugs at all. Please call them “lady beetles!”

Most insects are not bugs at all, along with beetles (Coleoptera), there are groups like flies (Diptera), wasp-waisted insects like bees (Hymenoptera), the Lepidoptera with butterflies, skippers, and moths, and let’s not forget the stick insects and preying (or praying) mantis the Mantodea.  I discussed this a little bit before in Don’t Let Insects Bug You.

Good Bugs Versus Bad Bugs

When I spoke to a room full of workers wanting their CEU’s for pesticide licenses, I got some questions about just how many “good bugs” versus “bad bugs” there are in the world. Luckily, I came armed with this knowledge – that I had looked up ahead of time.

While it is true that there are some bad bugs out there, there are even more kinds of good bugs doing their part to keep the bad bugs in check. This depends if you consider “bad” bugs to be pests, the insects detrimental to humans.  The ratio is considered to be 99 percent “good” bugs, to 1 percent pests.

If you are into motorcycles, you may have heard about the “One Percenters.” It’s the one percent of all motorcycle riders that belong to gangs, engage in illegal and nefarious acts, and give the rest of the peaceful, law abiding motorcycle riders a bad name.  Same thing in the insect world. Those One Percenter bugs have given the entire group a bad name.   Please note that not all motorcycle clubs are gangs, no matter how rough the club members may appear.

The 99 Percent of good insects include human friends such as bees and butterflies. Butterflies sure are pretty to have around, plus they help pollinate flowers. The 99 Percenters also include the gall insects that I discussed earlier. Yes the gall insects disturb the plants they live on, but they do tolerable harm.  They would be silly indeed to kill off the very plants they need for life.

There are over one million species of insects in the world. It is estimated that 99 percent of them do no harm to humans or their crops, not their livestock.

Now, About Those “Bad” Bugs

I told you that story to tell you this one.  It is about some very ugly “bugs” I found on my citrus plants.  They really bugged me, and made me go out of my way for them, and here is the story about them:  Butterfly Babies.

Butterfly Plants for Southwest Gardens

Here is a short list of some of the more popular native southwestern plants for butterfly gardens in Low, Middle, and High Desert Elevations.   For a more complete list, plus how to grow them, see my book: Butterfly Gardening in Southern Arizona, Revised Edition. 

About The Title

The title is me – as a plant nerd – being very specific.  I made a tactical error there.  The plants and techniques in this handy little book will work in much of the Southwest.  The plants are native to Sonoran and Mohave Desert landscapes, which includes northern Arizona, southern Nevada, eastern California, and over into the Chihuahuan Desert areas of New Mexico, and even into Texas! 

Published by locally by Tierra del Sol Institute – whose mission statement is “Helping people live in harmony with their environment.”  All the profits from the sale of the book go to their Horticulture Therapy programs.

Note.  This slender volume was printed in Tucson at Arizona Litographers, the first ever printing press in America to be run entirely on green energy.  They have won awards for their efforts to reduce impact upon the earth, and thus fit well with the Tierra del Sol mission to help people live more lightly on this earth.

Butterfly Plant List (partial)

Ageratum corymbosum – butterfly mist 

Aristolochia watsonii – Watson's dutchman's pipe    

Asclepias linaris – pineleaf milkweed 

Asclepias subulata – desert milkweed 

Baccharis sarothroides – desert broom    

Baileya multiradiata – desert marigold 

Celtis pallida  – desert hackberry 

Chilopsis linearis – desert willow 

Dalea greggii – trailing indigo bush

Dalea purpurea – purple dalea 

Encelia farinosa – brittlebush (too many to link just one)

Ericameria laricifolia – turpentine bush    

Fallugia paradoxa – Apache plume 

Gossypium thurberi – desert wild cotton 

Hyptis emoryi (now Condea emoryi) – desert lavender (cooking with)

Ipomea arborescens – morning glory tree

Isocoma azeteca – Arizona goldenbush

Justicia californica – chuperosa 

Lupinus species – lupine

Mimosa dysocarpa – velvetpod mimosa

Mirabilis longiflora – white four o'clock    

Oenothera caespitosa – tufted evening primrose 

Parkinsonia species  – palo verde tree (using the edible flowers)

Passiflora foetida – desert passionflower vine

Prosopis species – honey mesquite tree  (too many to link just one!)  

Ratibida columnifera – Mexican hat, prairie coneflower

Sarcostemma cyanchoides  – climbing milkweed (on my YouTube)   

Senna covesii – desert senna 

Tecoma stans – desert yellow bells

Ugnadia speciosa – Mexican buckeye

Verbena tenuisecta – thin leaf verbena    

Wedelia texana – Devil River daisy 

Yucca species – yucca 

and finally 

Zinnia acerosa – desert zinnia    

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