Goodies or Baddies?

When you think of bugs in the garden does it fill you with horror or do you find it fascinating. Do you have problems with bugs of various kinds in your garden; aphids, slugs, Scale, moths, slaters, or curl grubs?
Do you rush for that bottle of spray from Bunnings and blast them out of this world? Do you think of them as goodies or baddies?
From time to time I have a good range of bugs of one sort or another in my garden. Some of them particularly enjoy my fruit trees; Codling moth and Cherry slug. Others live in my compost; Slaters and worms. Some such as curl grubs live under the mulch. There are spiders in the corners and case moth cases attached to tree bark and I’ve  had the odd run in with aphids on stone fruit and citrus caterpillar on the Lemon tree.
The interesting thing is that if your garden is healthy, with a good range of plants, well composted soil and adequate water for those plants which require it, adequate light for the light lovers and shade for the shade lovers your plants themselves will largely resist pests and disease. With a good variety of plants in the garden the birds will hop through picking off the bugs for food. Think magpies for curl grubs. If you don’t reach for the bottle every time you see an aphid, next time you look you will most likely see some lady beetles chomping down on the aphids. Nature itself takes care of the balance of all these things when it is given time.
So I don’t think of any of these things as goodies or baddies, all just part of the chain of nature. Now rabbits? They are another thing altogether. Cute as buttons but definitely baddies!