Summary

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.

Booklist Review

Here's a sobering statistic: there are more than 100,000 species of insects and related garden pests in North America, and to gardeners it must often seem that the vast majority of them are eating, crawling, and flitting their way through treasured plants and flowers.nowing what's doing the damage is more than half the battle in winning the pest-control war, and to that end Cranshaw has developed an impressive, encyclopedic guide to identifying everything from acorn weevils to zebra caterpillars. Understanding the way gardeners think, Cranshaw has logically organized the information according to the type of damage inflicted. The chapter on leaf chewers, for example, lists more than three-dozen likely insect culprits. Insect groups are then further characterized by host plant, range, appearance, and habits to precisely pinpoint the offending pest. Methods of controlling insect populations, in-depth discussions of beneficial insects, a comprehensive at-a-glance appendix of common plant-insect associations, and more than 1,400 color photos make this a marvel among insect identification manuals. --Carol Haggas Copyright 2004 Booklist

Library Journal Review

Despite its title, this ambitious reference work by an entomologist at Colorado State University actually covers a wide variety of garden invertebrates-insects, snails, mites, spiders, and so forth-found in North America. Most of the text, which is based on current, cooperative extension research from around the United States, is devoted to the identification and description of harmful horticultural pests grouped by the types of damage they cause plants. One chapter provides an introduction to management principles for controlling major pests, but no pest-control advice is given in the descriptive chapters. For such information, readers should turn to excellent regional publications, such as Mary Louise Flint's Pests of the Garden and Small Farm: A Grower's Guide to Using Less Pesticide. Nevertheless, this is a welcome addition to all horticultural and gardening collections, providing an excellent introduction to the "bugs" patrons may see in their home gardens.-Brian Lym, City Coll. Lib. of San Francisco (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Choice Review

Insects are the most diverse and widely distributed life-forms on the planet. Gardens, and the diverse gardeners that tend them, are similarly widely distributed. Succinctly capturing this diversity, Cranshaw (Colorado State Univ.) has constructed a lucid and well-illustrated text to allow gardeners to identify insects they encounter according to family, (many) to genus, and (sometimes) to species. The bulk of the text groups insects by their interaction with a plant (e.g., leaf chewers, leaf miners, flower/fruit/seed feeders, sapsuckers, gall makers, stem/twig damagers, trunk/branch borers, and root/tuber/bulb feeders). This arrangement helps the user find a cause of damage based on the location of the problem on the host plant. Description of metamorphosis, a synoptic key to identification of immature forms, and information on diseases transmitted by insects and on problem diagnosis will aid in the development of management strategies. This excellent reference for the gardener covers many insects from the southern region not typically included in such texts. The author unabashedly acknowledges that much of the material is a rehash of previously published works, which he references. Breadth of synthesis, high quality, and effective formatting justify this work as a valuable addition to the popular literature. It includes a glossary and references to the literature. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. All levels. M. K. Harris Texas A&M University