Should we react every time we see a little damage in the garden?

September 24, 2026

“Sometimes the best thing a gardener can do is nothing!”

Credit to Vicki Harrell

Vicki in ‘eastern central North Carolina’ writes: “I have something eating the leaves on my banana pepper, basil and butterfly bush. I suspect it is a grasshopper. How do I stop him?”

Vicki later added “Now I think it's leaf hoppers. I have enclosed pictures of the destruction. PS: You are the BEST!”

A.Yes, I am—and humble too!

{Ahem} The photos Vicki sent (and that we display here) were very helpful. My appraisal? If this is destruction, cut me a slice—because I had to look close to find any ‘damage’, and I would judge the little nibbles I did find to account for less than one percent of the total plant mass.

So this gets filed under “Nothing is wrong; do nothing”. Really.

Back in the nineties when I was Editor-in-Chief of ORGANIC GARDENING magazine, researchers found that light nibbling (affecting no more than five to ten percent of the plant) had the potential to actually increase yields. Yes, increase.

Quoting from a recent (2025) peer-reviewed and published article (in the journal ACS Omega) from the National Library of Medicine and archived by PubMed Central, “slight insect feeding can improve yields through a process called compensatory growth or the pruning effect, where mild damage prompts the plant to redirect resources and grow stronger. [1]

We often forget that plants are living things that react to stimuli in their environment in many ways, and insect and herbivore damage can affect crop yields in different ways. It is left to the individual gardener to figure out when to react and when to trust the plants.

If a plant is covered in sap-sucking aphids, the gardener should react by blasting the pests off with SHARP (laser-focused and strong enough for you to feel it hitting your hand) hits of water. This kills a lot of them immediately, and the ones left on the ground are too depressed to try and climb back up again.

But if you hit the panic button for a few chewed leaves, you’re likely to do more harm than good. Vicki’s photos are a pin-point illustration of when to watch and wait.

And her second choice of culprits—leaf hoppers—is incorrect as they, like many garden pests, are sap suckers, not leaf munchers. Unfortunately, none of her photos shows an actual grasshopper, but a single hoppin’ the grass would not be an issue—and more of a rarity in my garden, as I haven’t seen one in years.

But if you spot several in your garden, it would be judicious to catch them in butterfly nets and feed them to chickens—or eat them yourself! I have enjoyed them deep-fried with dipping sauce, despite being reluctant to try them at first. (I would say ‘hand pick’ them, but they’re faster than we are.)

Apologies to gardeners in regions where grasshoppers are a real menace, especially if they transform into a swarm of locusts. If this is you, send us a question about them and I will try and provide useful information.

But again, minor insect pest damage can enhance the productivity of crops through the afore mentioned “pruning effect” that occurs when an insect feeds. The study notes that, as an example, bean yields can be increased by minor aphid infestations.[34]


We quote the researchers: “Understanding the correlation between pest injury levels and crop yield can be quite intricate, especially when considering factors such as compensatory growth and the variability of resistance to attacks over time.”

I’ll add another scientific memory from my OG days, concerning corn. Studies in the nineties confirmed that plants attacked by corn ear borers (pest caterpillars hatched from eggs laid by moths in the tips of silking corn) can emit a pheromone-like substance that calls out to parasitic mini-wasps like a dinner bell.

These almost-invisible beneficial insects propagate by laying their eggs on pest caterpillars, and when those eggs hatch, the larvae proceed to eat their way in. The phenomena is a double-barreled success: The caterpillars quickly stop feeding, and more wasps emerge from the carcass.

Who knows how many other communications exist between plants and their beneficial buddies? We know for a fact that light leaf munching and sap-sucking can also allow plants to slowly develop resistance to those insects--and plant diseases. Why artificially insert resistant genes if the process occurs naturally? Yes, it takes a little longer, but the result doesn’t depend on gene splicing.

Cue the Jurassic Park music; and Jeff Goldblum: “Nature finds a way”.