A survey of species richness and abundance of insects, mites, and spiders within or around the tea clumps from an organic tea garden, a safety tea garden, and a common tea garden was conducted in the southern Anhui Province from July of 2002 to July of 2003. A total of 20,732 individuals of 131 species belonging to 70 families from the organic tea garden, 42,547 individuals of 97 species belonging to 50 families from the safety tea garden, and 35,242 individuals of 89 species belonging to 50 families from the common tea garden were recorded. Within the organic (O), the safety (S), and the common (C) tea gardens, respectively: the relative abundances of the tea green leafhopper (Empoasca vitis Gothe) were 25% (O), 33% (S), and 50% (C); the tea geometrid (Ectropis oblique Prout) were 1.6% (O), 30.8% (S), and 20.3% (C); wasps, ground beetles, tiger beetles, ladybugs, and rove beetles were the major natural enemies in the tea gardens, with their species richness and relative abundances being 40 and 12.63% (O), 33 and 4.45% (S), and 29 and 4.57% (C); the ratios of species richness between predators to pests were 1∶0.60 (O), 1∶0.64 (S), and 1∶0.71 (C) while the ratios of abundance between predators to pests were 1∶0.84 (O), 1∶3.21 (S), and 1∶3.17 (C); the ratios of abundance between the tea geometrid and the parasite wasp Apanteles sp. were 3.4∶1 (O), 18.8∶1 (S), and 17.0∶1 (C). In the organic tea garden the abundance of spiders was significantly correlated to that of the tea green leafhopper (p＜0.05). The χ2 tests showed that the species compositions in the organic, the safety, and the common tea gardens differed significantly from each other. These results suggest that farming methods have great impacts on the community composition of arthropods and the relative abundance of major pests and their natural enemies. A ban on the use of insecticides in the tea gardens and enrichment of plant diversity in the habitats around the tea gardens would increase and conserve the abundance of natural enemies and consequently reduce the populations of insect pests and their damages.