Thanks!

I don't like cicadas. They're noisy and the cats like to drag them in late at night and play with them.... in the dark, sometimes when I'm alone. Some folks have Palo Verde beetles which sound scary but I've lived down here for 25+ years and still haven't seen one. Of course, I don't have any Palo Verde trees so maybe that's why. I don't have scorpions, black widows, tarantulas, rattlesnakes or any of the other notorious desert dwellers but none of them are, technically, insects.
What kind of insect are you expecting to find?

tracydr, can you elaborate on what IPM and BT are? I'm not familiar with these acronyms.

Thanks!

let's just say that the valley is like the Mecca of pests and nasty insects. I has been pretty bad for me since I've moved here.

Here's a partial list of some of the ones I've battled with:
grapeleaf skeletonizers - BT is the cure.
Whiteflies - These are a royal pain to deal with. I use Bayer Advanced insect control (imidacloprid)
Cucumber beetle - nasty PITA pest, pick yer poison
Aphids - tiny, but they can do a number on your garden. I've had some success with DE (Diatomaceous Earth) Last year I had a major infestation on my okra and roses)
Leaffooted bug - attacks fruits
grasshoppers - they come late in the season I haven't had much trouble from them.
Palo verde beetle - gigantic scary looking beetle. they're only harmless to the roots of palo verde trees. (June-July)
June Beetle - I haven't had much problem with these, I think they're beautiful, but they can cause damage on fruit.
Tomato hornwom - big huge caterpilar from hell. BT will fix that one.
Fire ants - They generally don't do a whole lot of damage in the garden but I hate them. painful sting.

I'm sure I forgot several, but I can't think at the moment.

Praying Mantis. Every once in a while I see one. they're my friends, and they're hillarious characters.

Lacewing - I think they also prey on aphids

Ladybugs - I buy these at Baker's nursery in the spring (1500 of them in a little mesh bag)

Carpenter bees - these are awesome pollinators. They're the big (gigantic) black bumblebee looking things you see flying around in May. They can cause harm to wooden structures, they make holes in wood. I still like them.

Other bees - pollinators are welcome at my place.

I might have missed some....

there's another new bad guy: Glassy Winged Sharpshooter
it's a carrier for several plant diseases that can wipe out oleanders, grapevines and citrus.

I would see aphids and leave them alone. Within a couple of weeks, I still had aphids but I also had a healthy population of aphid eating bugs.

What do you plan on growing? We can discuss specific pests and control strategies.

My WORST garden pest: Callipepla gambelii
They can strip a lettuce bed to the nubbins in a couple of days.

My WORST garden pest are grasshoppers. grrrrrrr

To keep ants under control try Amdro. Its a bait that the ants take back to the colony where its shared by all. Voila - no more ants. Ants will protect aphids because they harvest the sugary 'honeydew', a kind word for aphid poop.

Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) is great because its a bacteria and only targets caterpillars. There is also a Bt for mosquitoes which can be tossed into standing water to prevent the larvae from maturing. It's safe for fish and other animals.

If you use insecticides, you'll never see the good bugs.

Let me back up a little - i'm a gardening teacher in a school. Yes, they were well aware that i knew nothing about gardening when they offered me the job, I've been learning as i go and have enjoyed the experience (which is why i was thrilled to stumble across this forum).

I have a handful of small beds. Two are flowers, one of herbs, one of "tea" herbs, and one of veggies. The veggie garden has broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, beets, corn.

I've had to fence everything off and put up bird netting, because my biggest problems at the start of the year were the quail and a very ambitious rabbit who even lopped the heads off my marigolds and ate the greens to the ground. I hated to do that because now the kids can't access anything in those beds. I do have one open bed where the roses are along with some supposedly rabbit-resistant things (so far they've been untouched). Echinacea, plumbago, living stone, agastache, an artichoke plus some seedlings that are cropping up from long-forgotten seed scatterings. I recognize the beginnings of cosmos and zinnias. The others will be surprises.

I'm reluctant to use BT now that i hear what it is, because i want Gulf Fritillaries on my passion flowers. Perfect experience for my preschoolers and kindergarteners to see the life cycle of butterflies in nature rather than in a cage in the classroom.

Hopefully the ladybugs will be in soon, and i did find a praying mantis sunning itself on a wall over my empty bed. I trapped it, spent a day showing it to the kids and explaining why we want them in our garden, and then rereleased it in the vegetable bed.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/226166/natural_pest_control_f or_gardeners.html

Use society garlic around your roses to repel aphids. I suppose garlic chives or other garlic-type edible will work, too. Rabbits don't cross mature sweet white alyssum in the church rose garden and they aren't crazy about lavender or rosemary but don't use invasive trailing rosemary near other plants, of course. A lot of flowering plants encourage bees and some of your students may be scared to get very close to the plants.

~Ame

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FN: The truth is Phoenix has few bug or disease problems---it is too dry. What is present eats a bit and then gets eaten. Or the eater turns into a beneficial. Either way it seems to me not worth bothering with unless it dramatically effects yield or wholesomeness/appearance of fruit. If it just eats some leaves can't we all just get along?

Jeff - google "lacewings" and see if that's what you're talking about -?

And the ants here DO bite -- those tiny ones are horrible. You may not have them in your yard, but they are at every park/playground I've been to here in Tucson. Painful.