Gardens are home to more than plants. Birds and small mammals are often poking around, seeking sustenance. Invertebrates make their living in the garden too, and encountering them gives many gardeners pause. We may recoil, or we may want to observe. And we may have a question: to squish, or not to squish? To help you make a more informed decision, and hopefully ease your mind a little, here are a few critters you might come across and their merits, or lack thereof.
First up, a true bad guy, the jumping worm, an invasive earthworm. Nearly all earthworms in New England are non-native, but the jumping worm is the most problematic. It lives near the surface, consuming organic matter (leaf litter, mulch), exhausting soil nutrients and significantly altering the soil chemistry and structure. Jumping worms are metallic grey-brown, usually four or five inches in length, with slim, firm, non-slimy bodies; they have a flat white or grey collar (clitellum) encircling their body near their head. True to their name, jumping worms jump and thrash mightily, in an unnerving display, when you try to pick them up. Dispose of them by dropping them into a bucket of soapy water.
Aphids are a common garden pest. There are many varieties in many colors (white, black, orange, green, red) found on many host plants. But, broadly speaking, aphids are small, plump, soft-bodied insects that feed on plant sap, typically without adversely affecting the health of the plant. Their waste product, honeydew, is a sweet, sticky substance which is the perfect growing medium for a fungus called sooty mildew. Sooty mildew is largely an aesthetic problem, but should it reach unacceptable levels, you need to control the aphids. Aphids are easily squished, if you are not squeamish, or you can rinse them off with a jet of water from the hose. Alternatively, you can try to introduce or encourage beneficial insects. These include ladybugs, lacewing larvae and beneficial wasps. Indeed, if you have aphids, and you wait long enough, you will often find ladybugs have come to rescue your garden, which is pretty nifty. Have a care when dealing with aphids on milkweed plants. Look carefully on the underside of the leaves for the singleton eggs of the monarch butterfly so you do not inadvertently destroy them when you are marauding against aphids. Monarch eggs and aphids are about the same size (no bigger than a sesame seed) and shape. But the eggs are always white; they are attached to the leaf at the narrow end (hence upright and stationary) and, of course, they do not have legs. You might find a hand lens useful for this task.
Ladybug larvae definitely fall in the do not squish category. But what intimidating creatures they are! They look like spiky black-and-orange armored dragons or alligators. They, and their equally voracious parents, are generalist carnivores eating aphids, scale, mealy bugs, thrips, whiteflies and other soft-bodied insects.
Spiders are another garden denizen who are intimidating to many, but there are a variety of benefits to having spiders in your garden. First, of course, is that spiders keep the insect population under control. Second, spider silk is a frequently used component of birds nests—it is the duct tape of the avian world. Hummingbirds, for one example, are heavy consumers of spider silk, using it to attach the bits of fungi, bud scales and other plant material they have gathered to build their exquisite nests. The third reason to not squish spiders is also avian-related: spiders are an important part of the diet of baby birds; they contain large amounts of taurine, an amino acid vital to the brain and eye development of fledgling birds. In the first five days after hatching, parent birds actively seek spiders to feed their brood before switching to calorie rich caterpillars. So shoo the spiders out of your house if you must, but leave them in your garden.
Dorothy gardens in Belmont, where she lives with her husband, Steve, and their two dogs, Rosie and Jasper. She has six grandchildren — all perfect by definition — and has enjoyed introducing them to gardening. She has an abiding interest in nature and is always amazed by the wonders to be found in her own backyard.
