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If you need a book that has ALL the bugs in their different stages of growth, and what damage they do, then this is the book for you!
Not only do I love this book for the vast amount of information that it holds for identifying friend or foe, it is a great book for my kids!!(LOL) I am not kidding! My kids find it facinating and want to go and find the BUG in my garden after they look through it. GREAT PHOTOS!!!
My most favorite insect book. Not only does it list the insects by the damage they do (leaf chewers, sap suckers, flowers, fruit and seed feeders, etc) but it also provides excellent colored photos, not only of the adult insect, but in many cases the larval stage and pupa stage too. There are also color photos of the damage to the plants. In addition to the section on management principles (control) there is also a section where one can look up the host plant and find the insects and mites that feed on that plant. The beneficial insect chapter is excellent. Everyone who gardens should have this book.
This book was recommended by a UW Entomologist to my master gardening class. He said it is the only insect book he recommeds because of the identification tools and life cycle information. It does not have control info but that info will date a book. Most of the control info is easy to find online once you understand what the insect is and its life cycle.
Cranshaw uses plant host association to organize this collection of slightly more than 1400 insect species. To use the guide, consider the part of the plant "in use" (leaf, flower, stem or root) and then the evidence of the insect you have found on the plant ( left by chewers, suckers, or borers). You will have a full color portrait of your garden guest in no time.
Cranshaw offers an overview of insect life cycles and a taxonomy of "garden bugs" in the introductory chapter, followed by a chapter on effective garden management practices that will keep pest populations in check. He also offers a concluding chapter on beneficial insects that serves as a reminder that chemical solutions in the garden ought to be a last resort. Useful list of host plants in the appendix.
Great images, reliable information, easy to use, and very decently priced.
