There are different kinds of insects that eat plants as food. Certain insects eat plants, while others, like ticks and common mosquitoes, feed on blood.
Still others, like common cockroaches, will even consume toothpaste and unopened human food.
Yet most insects are herbivores, meaning they are solely insects that eat plants.
Plants provide a food source for a wide variety of insects.
1. Caterpillars
Caterpillars are the first insect on our list of those that eat plants. They consume the leaves of nearby plants and trees.Â
A butterfly begins as a caterpillar before it develops wings. In their natural habitat, caterpillars consume the leaves of flowering trees and plants.
Various species of caterpillars consume distinct kinds of plants, contingent on the kinds of flora present in their natural habitat.
While some caterpillar species only consume a certain plant, others will consume any plant material.
Most insects that eat plants deposit their eggs on plants, and the newly hatched caterpillar starts feeding on these plants.
2. Japanese Beetles
Japanese beetles are also insects that eat plants. An invasive pest in the United States, the Japanese beetle is well-known for its ravenous eating habits due to its lack of natural habitat and propensity to consume a wide variety of vegetation.Â
More than 300 distinct plant species’ fruits, leaves, and foliage are consumed by Japanese beetles.
The eating behavior of Japanese beetles is referred to as “skeletonizing,” as the insect feeds on the plant tissue between its veins.
Japanese beetles may finish an entire fruit in minutes and frequently dine in groups of around 12 insects.
3. Sawflies
Sawflies, which eat plant leaves, stems, and roots, are sometimes seen in huge groups or clusters and are known by the nickname “plant ticks” because they suck the juices out of plants.
Aphids are regarded as pests because they eat crops, fruit trees, and vegetables. While some animals only eat a single kind of plant, others consume all of the flora in their natural area.
Although sawflies are wasp larvae, people frequently confuse them for caterpillars. Sawflies may cause much harm fast since they usually eat in groups of plants.
When sawflies consume leaves, they may skeletonize the leaf by consuming all of the tissue in its veins or leaving holes in the leaf.
Sawflies can leave behind webs or galls, which are small larvae. Frequently misidentified as caterpillars, sawflies are wasp larvae.
Usually, sawflies congregate to feed on plants. Sawflies are wasp larvae, not caterpillars, as many people think. Usually, sawflies eat in groups of plants.
4. Leafcutter Ants
Although leaf-cutter ants will bite off portions of leaves and return them to their colony, they do not eat leaves. A fungus that the ants eat is given the leaves.
If leaf-cutter ants are in your garden, you can notice ants taking bits of leaf debris away. These insects that eat plants can be active day and night and forage in groups.
To feed the leaves to a fungus, leaf cutter ants will bite off portions of leaves and take the pieces back to their colony.
5. Grasshoppers
Grasshoppers consume crops, leaves, and grasses. They inhabit meadows and grassy regions with an abundance of flora.
Even though they are only 1 to 7 cm long, grasshoppers have a 16-fold feeding capacity in a single day.
Although these insects eat plants, mostly leaves and grasses, farmers frequently view them as pests because they eat grain crops.
If grasshoppers have been nibbling on your plants, they usually leave behind ragged holes. Grasshoppers enjoy eating fruits, vegetables, stems, and leaves.
Even though they are active during the day, Grasshoppers consume during the night. You could see grasshopper eggs in the ground surrounding your garden.
6. Thrips
Apart from their habit of chewing on leaves, these insects that eat plants consume fruits, vegetables, and stems.
Like aphids, thrips, belonging to the Thysanoptera order, are minuscule insects with a length of less than 20 µm.
They gather in their hundreds on the undersides of plant leaves, draining the leaves’ fluids and leaving behind a varnish-like layer.
Certain thrips species, such as the bean thrips (Caliothrips fasciatus), target particular plants, but other thrips species don’t care as much. Any plant in your yard could become infested with thrips.
7. Black Vine Weevils
Black vine weevil is next on our list of insects that eat plants. Although the larvae of these 1/2-inch slate-colored black vine weevils (Otiorhynchus sulcatus) cause the most harm by attacking roots and bark, adult black vine weevils gnaw big portions from leaves, leaving crescent-shaped notches.
Adults in the northern United States and some areas of Canada have been warned to treat the soil to eliminate the larvae.
Rhododendrons (Rhododendron spp.) grow perennially in USDA plant hardiness zones 4 through 9, and yews (Taxus spp.) grow perennially in USDA zones 4 through 8. Black vine weevils prefer these plants.
8. Leafcutter Bees
The leafcutter bees do not consume leaves. Rather, they use the semicircular portions they cut out to construct their nests.
These insects that eat plants, which resemble honeybees in size, play a vital role in pollination. They sting lightly and are not hostile.
9. Cutworms
The larvae of cutworms are segmented and weigh one inch. They are active at night and can be found in most of North America’s early vegetable and flower seedlings and transplants.
Cutworms may eat small plants to death in May and June, chewing through stems at ground level.
10. Flea Beetles
Flea beetles are tiny, dark insects that, when disturbed, leap like fleas.
They are widespread in North America and prefer to hang around on most vegetable crops.
Larvae eat plant roots, while adults chew many tiny, circular holes in leaves, which is particularly harmful to young plants.
11. Aphids Spotted Plants
These are swiftly moving, mottled green or brown insects with yellow triangles with black tips on their forewings.
In North America, they are in various flowers, fruits, and vegetables.
Plant juices are sucked by adults and nymphs, which results in fruit and leaf deformity, wilting, stunting, and tip dieback.Â
12. Japanese Cicadas
The larvae are chubby white grubs with brown heads, while the adults are ½-inch, metallic blue-green beetles with bronze wing coverings.
Every state east of the Mississippi River has them, and they are in a wide variety of flowers, tiny fruits, and vegetables.
While larvae feed on the roots of lawn and garden plants, adults skeletonize leaves, devour blooms, and sometimes totally defoliate plants.
13. Colorado Potato Beetles
The Colorado potato beetle is a striped bug that consumes the leaves of potato plants. The stripes on the back of this striped beetle are black and orange.
The tiny, destructive pest resembles a beetle with clubbed antennae, orange legs, and an orange and black thorax.
Their spherical body and unique stripes easily recognize these insects that eat plants. The obscene beetle is between 0.24 and 0.43 inches (6 and 11 mm) long.
It frequently causes damage to the leaves of nightshade plants, most notably potatoes.
14. Squash Bugs
Pumpkin and squash plants are the primary targets of squash bugs (Anasa tristis), who feed on the sap on their leaves.
Insects, known as squash bugs, consume plants by sucking the sap from their leaves.
A brown-colored squash insect, about 0.6″ (15 mm) long, with a distinct flat back and a brown body with tan-colored speckles.
One of squash bugs’ traits is the putrid odor they release when broken. This can cause extensive damage to plants.Â
The brown bugs, shaped like shields, make plant leaves droop and eventually die. Because of the unpleasant smell they emit when you squash them, they are also known as stink bugs.
On the other hand, their common name is their tendency to infest squash plants.
15. Mexican Bean Beetles
The Mexican bean beetle, which has black markings, feeds on bean plants. After devouring plant foliage, the beetle leaves skeletonized blades behind.
The little orange beetles’ oval, rounded wing coverings are marked with jet-black dots.
This orange beetle with black spots features two clubbed black antennae, an orange head, and an orange thorax. This ladybug-type beetle measures between 0.23″ and 0.27″ (6 – 7 mm).
Mexican bean beetles feed on the flowers and seed pods of Fabaceae plants, which belong to the pea family.
Plant-eating bugs ruin plant leaves, giving the appearance of withered lace. These insects come in red, yellow, and orange colors.
