Backyard Biodiversity
Beneficial insects you actually want in your yard
March 12, 2025 · 5 min read
The impulse to zap every insect in the yard is precisely backwards. A healthy insect community includes predators that suppress the actual pests, pollinators that keep your fruit and flowers producing, and decomposers that keep soil functioning.
Predators
Ground beetles, rove beetles, lacewings, parasitoid wasps, assassin bugs, ambush bugs, syrphid fly larvae, and spiders together eat most of the insects that would otherwise damage garden plants. Broad-spectrum insecticides wipe them out along with the pests, which is why treated yards often see pest rebounds worse than the original problem.
Pollinators
Native bees, hoverflies, butterflies, moths, and beetles between them handle almost all of the pollination of native plants and most of the pollination of garden fruit and vegetables. See our pollinator garden guide for design details.
Decomposers
Springtails, mites, isopods, and beetle larvae process leaf litter and woody debris into the humus that feeds your plants. Bagging and removing all yard debris starves this community.
Design principles
Diverse plantings, standing dead wood, uncovered soil, leaf litter left in place, and minimal chemical inputs together create the conditions all three groups need. The yards with the fewest pest problems are usually the ones with the richest predator communities.