The beneficial insects worth knowing by name

Ladybirds get all the press, but they are only one battalion in a much larger army. The seven-spot ladybird — red with black spots, native and common — is a ferocious aphid-eater both as larva and adult. The harlequin ladybird, larger and more variable in colour, is non-native and outcompetes our natives, but it still eats aphids by the hundred. The larvae look nothing like the adults: alligator-shaped, blue-black with orange spots, often mistaken for pests and squashed. Learn to recognise them.

Hoverflies are the unsung heroes. Adults feed on pollen and nectar; their larvae — pale, slug-like, blind and hungry — demolish aphid colonies with methodical efficiency. They hunt by touch, sucking each aphid dry and dropping the husk. If you grow fennel, dill, calendula or poached-egg plant, you will have hoverflies. They need flowers in bloom from March to October to sustain generation after generation.

Lacewings are night-shift workers, pale green with veined wings and golden eyes. Their larvae, like hoverfly larvae, are aphid specialists. Ground beetles — glossy black, fast-moving, active after dark — eat slugs, caterpillars, vine weevil grubs and wireworms. They live in the leaf litter and under stones. Parasitic wasps are tiny, non-stinging and invisible until you notice a mummified aphid on a leaf or a caterpillar that has stopped moving. They have already done the work.