Insect Identification

I know there are times in my own garden when I look at an insect and say, "What in the heck is that?" And I'm still learning about insect identification.

This can be butterflies, pests eating your flowers, whatever.


Here's a page where you can get assistance in insect identification about the insects in your garden and the controls (if need be) that will work on them.

I suspect you're going to find out that many of these insects are beneficial. :-) And you're going to want more of them. But you never know.

Here's how it works

Important - read these carefully

Check the Existing Pictures.

We're now stopping identifying the same insect over and over again. They are organized by color so check everything that's close to your insect.

5 Reasons Why Your Picture Didn't Get Identified

Email Address

If we identify this insect and can't tell you about it - what's the point? So enter your name and email address so we feel like we're doing this for a friend.

No email, no answer. And I don't use your email for any other purpose (I hate spammers). Never rented, given away, shared or sold.

Picture Submission

We can not identify an insect without a good quality picture. This means in focus, and closeup.

No exceptions to this I'm afraid - good closeup pictures or no id.

Our experience is that cell phone cameras do not give good enough pictures to identify (too far away, too overexposed etc) Sorry.

If you don't give us a closeup so we can see the insect, we can't id it. Sorry.

Number of Pictures

We invite you to add as many as 4 pictures of the same insect from different viewpoints into the form

Number of Insects

Only one insect per submission form. In other words, if you put two insects into the same form -the form will be deleted. Use two different forms for two different insects.

Location of Insects

We only id insects from North America.

And we want you to tell us where you found the insect (state, city) and what it was doing when you found it. What plant it was on and any other detail that will help us give you a good id. A good id is often the difference between helping and not being able to tell you what it is.

Title it Properly

With the color of the insect and main descriptor e.g. "brown, 2-inch flying"

Do not use "ugly bug" or anything similar (bugs are not ugly to us) This helps with putting the insect into the right category for identification

Most Important

Thank Moni for helping you by making another comment in your insect post.

If you picture doesn't appear

You messed up with one of the above guidelines.

How it Works

I have to approve every submission. I do this and the picture goes live.

Moni then takes a look at the pic and writes a great descriptive note in the comments section.

This means you'll get an email from me telling you the page is live (a form letter) and subsequent emails notes from Moni with the name and details.

It's a two stage process

Insect Identification

We need a picture to be able to identify the insect. Sorry but without a picture, we can't do the job and your submission will be deleted

The picture must be clear enough to see the insect

We work on insects from North America

Sorry - but without a clear picture, we can't help you


And do tell us something about the picture - like what this pest is on, what you're seeing etc. As many details as possible are important.

IMPORTANT - WHEN MONI ID'S YOUR INSECT - THANK HER. SHE DOES THIS AS A HELPING SERVICE - NOT PAID EXCEPT BY YOUR APPRECIATION - PLEASE SHOW IT.

Enter a title describing your insect

Enter Text Here Describing Insect. [ ? ]

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Upload Your Picture [ ? ]

Close Help If you want your insect identified, you need to give us a picture.

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Your Name	(first or full name)
Your Location	(ex. City, State, Country)

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See Other Garden Insects

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