There are three types of beneficial insects according to Doug Tallamy, an entomologist at the University of Delaware and author of Bringing Nature Home. Some are pollinators, some serve as food for other creatures and others prey on destructive bad bugs in a garden. All are important to a healthy garden environment.
The predator insects are not always highly visible but pollinate as well as destroy bad guys. The most common beneficial predators according to organicgardening.com fall into the following groups: lady bugs; lacewings; hover flies also known as flower flies or syrphid flies; predatory bugs such as the minute pirate, ambush, assassin, soldier and big-eyed bugs; ground beetles; hunting and parasitic wasps; spiders and tachinid flies. Tallamy says the best news is they have to eat every day.
Ladybugs are well known to most gardeners but few understand how important they can be to controlling aphids and other soft-bodied insect pests. One single ladybug can eat 5,000 aphids during its lifetime. Lacewing adults with their large pale green wings only consume nectar and pollen but their tiny brown larvae are voracious predators of aphids, thrips, scales, moth eggs, small caterpillars and mites. Hover flies look like small bees with striped abdomens and are often mistaken for bees. They are some of the earliest beneficials to visit spring flowers for nectar but it’s their greenish-grey larvae that resemble slugs with pointed heads that are the predators that can slip into tight areas to eat tiny aphids.
The predatory group contains numerous members which can be brown or colorful. Most have shield shaped backs and beak like mouths which they stick into prey and suck them dry including tomato hornworms, corn earworms, thrips, spider mites, insect eggs ,leafhopper nymphs and ants.  Ground beetles are long legged insects with shiny black or blue black coloration and like to hide under rocks or logs to feast on slugs, snails, cutworms, root maggots and Colorado potato beetle larvae.
Some predatory insects have a bad reputation due to other family members. The hunting and predatory wasps, of which there are thousands of species in 40-plus families according to organicgardening.com, are solitary non-stinging varieties (they have no mouth parts) that attach themselves to all kinds of insects to lay their eggs. They use caterpillars, beetles, flies, scales, aphids and others to house and feed their young and eventually the host perishes. Some are a mere .1-inch or 2.5 millimeters in size.  Garden spiders also are helpful predators and pose no threat to humans but consume many of the bad bugs. They do not seek shelter inside our homes nor are they poisonous to humans.
Tachinid flies look similar to house flies but differ in color, size and shape. They can be gray, black or striped but have distinct bristles on their abdomens and are important enemies of cutworms, army worms, tent caterpillars, cabbage loopers, gypsy moths, sawflies, Japanese beetles, squash bugs, grasshoppers, corn borers, Colorado potato beetle, pink bollworms, peach tree borer  and sow bugs.  Many have been introduced and established in biological control programs according to entomologists Susan and Dan Maher at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Motherearthnews.com calls them “the party guest from hell” and there are over 1300 species in North America, some of which are quite small.
It is easy for gardeners to work in harmony with nature. When their needs are met, beneficial bugs will make their home in a garden.  It is important to include a mixture of plants with staggered bloom times, heights and flower types to attract adult beneficial insects according to Jessica Wallister, author of Good Bug, Bad Bug.  Many beneficial adults feed on nectar and pollen and early bloomers including spring weeds such clover, chickweed, wild mustard and dandelions are good sources of nectar. Gardeners can usually find an inconspicuous spot to leave some of these weedy plants blooming for pollinators instead of mowing everywhere in the spring. Perennials, grasses and leaf litter provide shelter for beneficial bugs to hide from their predators and for them to overwinter in a garden. Native trees, shrubs and plants can be incorporated into home landscapes. Many are quite beautiful, require far less maintenance and water and are more attractive to all sorts of wildlife than those originating from foreign lands. Herbs are good pollen and nectar sources and fall is an excellent time to add perennial herbs and ornamentals as well as trees and shrubs to a landscape.
The Mississippi Native Plant Society recommends 12 Tough Native trees and Easy to Grow Native Wildflowers for Mississippi gardens. Red Maple, River Birch, Parsley Hawthorne, Titi, American Holly, Sweetgum, Southern Magnolia, Wax Myrtle, Black Gum, Live Oak, Bald Cypress and Cedar Elm are the trees they suggest. Black-eyed Susan, Lyre-leaf Sage, Bluestar, Stoke’s Aster, Coreopsis, Sunflower,
Liatris, Purple Coneflower, Spiderwort, Joe Pye Weed, Bee Balm, Phlox, Cardinal Flower, Woods Violet, Obedient Plant and Spider Lily (the large plant with white blooms not the bright red one that just concluded blooming) are the wildflower recommendations. Natives are usually the original species not cultivars.  Look for them at local nurseries, on-line specialty catalogs and at plant sales such the one coming up next weekend at the Clinton Nature Center from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Call 601-926-1104 or visit their website or face book page for more information on what will be available at the event.
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Miriam Jabour, a Master Gardener and Master Flower Show judge, has been active in the Openwood Plantation Garden Club for over 35 years. Write to her at 1114 Windy Lake Drive, Vicksburg MS 39183.