Ground beetles: the garden's night shift

Ground beetles are the night shift. These fast, shiny beetles shelter under mulch and logs by day and come out after dark to hunt — and they have a real appetite for some of the garden's worst pests.

What they eat

Slugs and snails, cutworms, caterpillars, root maggots and other soil-dwellers, plus weed seeds. A healthy population is one of the best defences your seedlings can have.

How to spot them

• Shiny black or metallic beetles, 1–2 cm, that run fast and scatter when you lift a board or mulch.
• Often mistaken for a pest — but they're firmly on your team.
• Active at night; by day they're tucked under cover.

How to attract and keep them: Mulch well and leave some undisturbed cover — a log, some stones, a few permanent plantings — for them to shelter in. A raised bed's mulch layer makes a fine home. Plant a variety of flowers among your veggies (see our companion planting guide), go easy on sprays that kill the good bugs along with the bad, and leave a shallow dish of water out in hot weather.

Go easy on soil disturbance and sprays, and this quiet night patrol will keep your seedlings safe. For the full approach, see our guide to managing pests the safe way.

Image: Daniel Bohrer, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.