Before you squash it, check here. Every ally shown at adult, larva, and egg stage — plus the pests they're mistaken for.
The ten mix-ups that cost gardeners the most free pest control.
Bean beetle is coppery-tan with 16 spots and chews holes in bean leaves; ladybugs never eat leaves.
Black spiky alligator with orange spots = your best aphid eater. Leave it.
Hoverfly hovers in place, has one wing pair, no waist, and cannot sting.
Beneficial has pointed shoulders and a thick beak; pest has rounded shoulders and banded antennae.
White rice-grain cocoons on its back mean it's already dead — leave it to hatch wasps.
Mummies are tan, swollen, papery, glued down, often with a round exit hole.
Blister beetles have a narrow neck and strip foliage; soldier beetles sit on flowers and don't damage plants.
Earwigs have rear pincers; rove beetles just curl the tail up and have none.
Predators are faster, pear-shaped, tan-orange, and spin no webbing.
Braconids are a few millimeters long and can't sting people.
Showing 20 of 20. Tap a card for full ID detail.
1/8–3/8 in
Adult: Domed, shiny, round-oval. Red, orange, pink or yellow with black spots — or black with red spots. Head tucked under a white-marked shield.
Larva / young: Looks like a tiny black alligator with orange spots and spiny bumps. This is the stage most people squash by mistake — it eats far more aphids than the adult.
Eggs: Clusters of 10–50 upright yellow-orange spindles on leaf undersides, usually right next to an aphid colony.
1/2–3/4 in
Adult: Pale green, delicate, with huge clear net-veined wings held roof-like and shiny gold-copper eyes. Fluttery, weak flier at dusk.
Larva / young: 'Aphid lion' — flat, tan-brown, tapered body with big curved sickle jaws. Some cover themselves in debris and look like walking lint.
Eggs: Unmistakable: single white ovals each on the tip of a long hair-thin stalk, standing off the leaf.
1/4–1/2 in
Adult: Yellow-and-black banded like a small bee or wasp but with ONE pair of wings, no visible waist, and it hovers dead-still in midair. Harmless — no sting.
Larva / young: Legless, translucent green-cream maggot that inches along a stem like a tiny slug, sucking aphids dry. Often mistaken for a pest grub.
Eggs: Single chalky-white grains laid inside aphid colonies.
1/16–1/2 in
Adult: Tiny, slender, dark or amber wasps with long antennae and a needle-like ovipositor. Most are too small to sting people.
Larva / young: Develops inside the host, then spins white rice-grain cocoons on the host's back — classic on tomato hornworms.
Eggs: Injected into the host; invisible from outside.
aphid-sized
Adult: Tiny black wasp, easy to miss.
Larva / young: Inside the aphid.
Eggs: Laid inside living aphids.
1/4–1 in
Adult: Fast, glossy black or metallic beetle with ridged wing covers and long legs. Runs for cover when you lift a board or mulch.
Larva / young: Dark, segmented, quick-moving soil grub with pincers at the head.
Eggs: Laid singly in soil.
1/8–3/4 in
Adult: Long, narrow, with very short wing covers so most of the abdomen is bare; curls its tail up like a scorpion when disturbed. It cannot sting.
Larva / young: Slim pale soil grub.
Eggs: In damp soil, compost, mulch.
1/2 in
Adult: Soft, flat, elongated beetle with velvety orange/yellow wing covers tipped in black or gray. Common on goldenrod and dill flowers.
Larva / young: Velvety dark soil-dwelling grub that hunts eggs and grubs.
Eggs: In soil and leaf litter.
1/2–1 in
Adult: Narrow head with a curved stabbing beak folded under; long legs; often brown, gray, or with a spined 'wheel' crest.
Larva / young: Wingless nymph, same shape, often brightly colored.
Eggs: Barrel-shaped clusters standing upright on stems.
1/12 in
Adult: Tiny black oval with a white X-shaped pattern across the back. Very fast.
Larva / young: Teardrop-shaped yellow-orange nymph, no wings.
Eggs: Inserted into plant tissue.
1/3–1/2 in
Adult: Slim tan/gray bug with thickened grabbing front legs and a slender beak.
Larva / young: Wingless nymph of the same shape.
Eggs: Inserted into stems.
1/2 in
Adult: Looks like a brown stink bug but with sharp pointed 'shoulders' and a thick stout beak (pest stink bugs have a thin beak and rounded shoulders).
Larva / young: Round, red-and-black patterned nymphs.
Eggs: Bronze barrel clusters.
2–4 in
Adult: Green or brown, triangular head that swivels, folded grasping front legs.
Larva / young: Miniature wingless versions that hatch in a swarm in spring.
Eggs: Ootheca — a tan, hardened foam blob the size of a walnut on stems and fences. Don't remove it in winter cleanup.
varies
Adult: Orb weavers in webs between plants; wolf and jumping spiders hunting on soil and leaves.
Larva / young: Spiderlings look like miniature adults.
Eggs: Silk egg sacs tucked in foliage or under boards.
pinhead
Adult: Pear-shaped, shiny, tan-to-orange, faster-moving than pest mites, and they make no webbing.
Larva / young: Same shape, smaller.
Eggs: Oval, clear, larger than spider mite eggs.
1/4–1/2 in
Adult: Bristly, stout gray-brown fly that looks like a hairy housefly.
Larva / young: Develops inside caterpillars and beetles.
Eggs: Small white oval eggs glued visibly onto the back of a caterpillar or squash bug.
1/4–1 in
Adult: Mason bees are metallic blue-black; bumbles are big and furry; sweat bees are small and metallic green. All carry pollen on hair, not baskets (except bumbles).
Larva / young: Inside nest tunnels or ground burrows.
Eggs: Sealed in mud-plugged tubes or soil cells.
2–8 in
Adult: Segmented, with a swollen band (clitellum) when mature.
Larva / young: Hatchlings emerge from cocoons as tiny worms.
Eggs: Lemon-shaped amber cocoons in the top few inches of soil.
2–4 in
Adult: Warty, squat, active at dusk near damp shelter.
Larva / young: Tadpoles in any still water.
Eggs: Strings or clumps of jelly in water.
varies
Adult: Wrens, bluebirds, chickadees, phoebes, swallows.
Larva / young: Nestlings — fed almost entirely on caterpillars.
Eggs: In boxes and shrubs.