There are bacteria everywhere, even on us! Some of them are bad and some of them are good. The good ones work really hard to make sure that the bad ones don’t take over. The good ones are called ‘beneficial bacteria’.
There are beneficial bacteria in the garden as well and they are working hard even when you can’t see them.
Scientists have been really clever and have produced some beneficial bacteria which we can now buy at garden centres to protect our gardens from pests and the best thing is that they are low toxic and very safe to use.
Hairy caterpillar
There are two products made from beneficial bacteria and these are very useful to remember; they both do a similar job. One is called spinosad and the other is called bacillus. Both of these will kill caterpillars and some other bad bugs if they are sprayed over the top of them.