Price : $18.78

Product Description

Garden Insects of North America is the most comprehensive and user-friendly guide to the common insects and mites affecting yard and garden plants in North America. In a manner no previous book has come close to achieving, through full-color photos and concise, clear, scientifically accurate text, it describes the vast majority of species associated with shade trees and shrubs, turfgrass, flowers and ornamental plants, vegetables, and fruits–1,420 of them, including crickets, katydids, fruit flies, mealybugs, moths, maggots, borers, aphids, ants, bees, and many, many more. For particularly abundant bugs adept at damaging garden plants, management tips are also included. Covering all of the continental United States and Canada, this is the definitive one-volume resource for amateur gardeners, insect lovers, and professional entomologists alike.

To ease identification, the book is organized by plant area affected (e.g., foliage, flowers, stems) and within that, by taxa. Close to a third of the species are primarily leaf chewers, with about the same number of sap suckers. Multiple photos of various life stages and typical plant symptoms are included for key species. The text, on the facing page, provides basic information on host plants, characteristic damage caused to plants, distribution, life history, habits, and, where necessary, how to keep pests in check–in short, the essentials to better understanding, appreciating, and tolerating these creatures.

Whether managing, studying, or simply observing insects, identification is the first step–and this book is the key. With it in hand, the marvelous microcosm right outside the house finally comes fully into view.

• Describes more than 1,400 species–twice as many as in any other field guide
• Full-color photos for most species–more than five times the number in most comparable guides
• Up-to-date pest management tips
• Organized by plant area affected and by taxa for easy identification
• Covers the continental United States and Canada
• Provides species level treatment of all insects and mites important to gardens
• Illustrates all life stages of key garden insects and commonly associated plant injuries
• Concise, clear, scientifically accurate text
• Comprehensive and user-friendly

Customer Reviews

Review date : 2008-11-01
If you are into gardening like I am, this is an excellent, colorful resource! It will help identify those interesting little bugs in your gardens. I only wish it had a section of natural preventions/controls to go along with each insect.

Review date : 2008-07-04
THIS WILL SHOW YOU THE REAL DEAL OF THE DOG EAT DOG UNIVERSE OF BUGS, IN YOUR FRONT AND BACKYARD……………

Review date : 2008-06-03
This is a great book it has wonderful pictures so that you may identify the bugs that you are looking for. I purchased one for myself and one for my daughter and we both love them.

Review date : 2008-05-05
I received this as a gift after I mentioned that I loved the Orkin insect zoo at the Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. It was not a book I would have bought for myself, but it has become indispensable bedtime reading! The pictures are vibrant and accompanied by hard-to-forget descriptions and explanations. I especially love the pictures taken by Whitney Cranshaw himself. This book is very accessible to those who are interested in the secret tiny life that exists off of their back porch, people who don’t know where to start and therefore keep pushing it off. Even the way the bugs are organized in the book is perfect- Leaf Chewers, Sap Suckers, Gall Makers, Twig Damagers, Branch Borers, Bulb Feeders… doesn’t this sound like the most beautiful poem in the world??

Review date : 2007-12-08
This bok is very inclusive in it’s content and very easy to look up insect for information or identification. It is used by Master Gardeners in our part of the country wth great appreciation for a book of such quality buyt yet affordble.