Lacewings LOVE aphids, leafminer, mealybugs, thrips, whitefly, armyworms, bollworms, cabbage worm, codling moths, corn borer, cutworm, DBM, fruitworm, leafhopper nymphs and eggs, potato beetle, scale insects, spider mites, and caterpillars of most pest moths. If given the chance, they can also prey on adult pests.

You can find their eggs on slender stalks or on the underside of leaves. Pale green in color,each egg is attached to the top of a hair-like filament.

 
Some often refer to the larvae as aphid lions because of their ravenous hunger for aphids. They are grayish-brown when newly hatched. Lacewings are born looking for food. They grow to about 1 cm in length. The larvae resemble alligators with pincers like jaw.They attack their prey by taking them with their large sucking jaws and injecting paralyzing poison, and then sucking out the body fluids of the pest. A larva can eat 200 or more pests or pest eggs a week. An older larva can consume 30-50 aphids per day. It can consume more than 400 aphids during its development. They cover their bodies with prey debris.

 
Adults are green to yellowish-green with four, delicate transparent wings that have many veins and cross veins. Adults are about 18 mm long, with long hair-like antennae and red-gold eyes. Each adult female may deposit more than 100 eggs. Many species of adult lacewings do not prey on pests. They feed on nectar, pollen, and honeydew. An adult will live for about four to six weeks depending on the climatic conditions.

To help attract lacewing to your garden, make available flowering plants such as dill, cosmos, sunflower, carrots, dandelions- a good source of pollen and nectar for adults. Provide source of water during dry season.

‘Til next time,

Poppy

Mr. Bluebird has not been seen for the past week. Mrs. Bluebird now has the full load of feeding their young. And it is not an easy task. She is continually finding grasshoppers and other bugs to faithfully deposit in the mouths of two hungry little ones.

There is one major obstacle that makes her duties as a mother and sole provider even more difficult. Mockingbirds! Each return trip she makes to the nest is a serious challenge. A mockingbird invariably attempts to snatch her catch from her. The continuous confrontations remind me of the family feud between the Hatfield’s and McCoys.

Recall that Mr. and Mrs. Bluebird had to fight with the mockingbirds in order to claim their rightful use of the bluebird box located on a tree next door (about ten feet away) to the mockingbird’s tree. Mr. & Mrs. Bluebird won the battle and set up housekeeping in the bluebird box which now houses two offspring.

As Mrs. Bluebird makes her approach to her nest, it is obvious most of the time that she has a fine catch of a grasshopper clutched in her beak. The mocking birds can’t resist and the aerial battle begins. Their maneuvers include climbs, dives, sharp left and right turns around trees, over trees, and through trees with the mockingbird in hot pursuit. It soon becomes a matter of endurance with occasional rest stops on a tree limb or power line.

It is the occasional rest stop that Mrs. Bluebird uses to her advantage. The mockingbird has a tendency to loose focus while waiting on Mrs. Bluebird to make her next move. After a short rest stop, the mockingbird will either spot a bug to catch or suddenly remember somewhere else to go.

Mrs. Bluebird will then make a cautious approach toward the birdhouse with stops along the way. Once she arrives, her babies consume her delivery in an instant. She perches on a nearby limb for just a little rest and relaxation only to be interrupted by the hunger cries of the little ones. Off she goes, one more time.

I wonder what has happened to MR. Bluebird?

‘Til next time,

Poppy

www.my-garden-world.com

marvin@my-garden-world.com

Queen of the garden!

One of our favorite insects is the ladybug which is actually a beetle belonging to the Coccinellidae family. The ladybug is known throughout the world with different names. In the UK, the lady bug is known as the ladybird tied to history associated with the Queen (I think it had something to do with the spots on the Queen’s robe). Most scientist refer to the ladybug as the lady beetle.

Enough history. How is the ladybug a beneficial garden insect? They can reek havoc on aphids! They also like thrips, mites, and other small insect eggs if there are no aphids around to feed on.

BEWARE! There are good ladybugs and some bad ladybugs lurking about. The bad ladybugs are the Mexican bean beetle (Epilachna  varivestis) and the squash beetle (Epilachna borealis). The adults will feed on plants. You can identify he Mexican bean beetles by their “cooper color”, sixteen black spots and about 1/4 inch long. The squash beetle looks like a Mexican bean beetle, but a squash beetle has a different diet. Look for them on squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, and melons. The Mexican bean beetle likes to eat the leaves of almost any kind of bean and other legumes.

Attracting ladybugs to your garden.

Aphids are the main attraction for ladybugs. It is sort of like the age old question- “which came first, the chicken or the egg?” It does not make much sense to allow the aphids to do damage before the first ladybug arrives on the scene. Of course, the best scenario would be to have the ladybug in place and ready for the aphids to arrive. Right?

How do we get the ladybug on the scene before the aphids? Adult ladybugs also include pollen and nectar in their diet. They will feed on this until the more desirable aphids become available. Making available such plants as any type of mustard plant, as well as other early blooming nectar and pollen sources, like buckwheat, cilantro, red or crimson clover, and legumes like vetches. Also, early aphid sources, like bronze fennel, dill, cilantro, caraway, angelica, tansy, yarrow, of the wild carrot family, Apiaceae. Other plants that also attract ladybugs include coreopsis, cosmos (especially the white ones), dandelions, and scented geraniums. 

Building an army of ladybugs to defend your garden doesn’t just happen. It takes a little effort to attract enough ladybugs to have an impact on aphids. A good way is to make the garden inviting to the ladybug by planting some of their favorites.

Caution! Synthetic pesticides will kill the ladybug. This is where a decision has to be made- use synthetic pesticides to control aphids or allow the ladybugs to control the aphid population.   

If all else fails, consider using Pyrellin EC at 1 to 2 teaspoons per gallon of water in an organic setting to wipe out the aphids.

Please leave a comment weather or not you found this post useful.

‘Til next time,

Poppy

www.my-garden-world.com

marvin@my-garden-world.com

The Hoverfly is a true soldier in the war against harmful garden insects.

You may have seen the hoverfly and mistook it for some sort of bee or wasp. That is it’s defense coloring to ward off predators. The hoverfly is harmless to humans, but deadly for aphids, thrips, and other plant sucking insects. They also make good pollinators.

There are different species found throughout the world. Some are what is called saprotrophs and their larvae (maggots) eat decaying plant materials and animals. The hoverfly we see around flowers and in our vegetable gardens are adults of the larvae species called insectivores. The larvae eat aphids, thrips, and  other plant sucking insects. The adults feed off nectar and pollen which make them good pollinators.

Aphids cause millions of dollars in plant damage every year. The hoverfly is being called upon by farmers and gardeners to help in the war on aphids. Companion planting is a centuries old technique used to fulfill a useful resource for nearby plants. In the case of the hoverfly, planting alyssum, lberis umbellata, statice, buckwheat, chamomile, parsley, and yarrow help to attract them to he garden.

Stay tuned for another beneficial garden insect in the next post.

‘Til next time,

Poppy

www.my-garden-world.com

marvin@my-garden-world.com

Now (or soon) our newly planted garden will be growing and we can take a rest. In eager anticipation, we await for a fantastic bounty for our efforts. Right!

WRONG!

That would be nice, but it just doesn’t work that way. There are mounds of threats out there just waiting to either compete with your new arrivals or to munch on the delicacies soon to arrive. There are choices to make now. The alternative is to hope for the best and let the bugs, grass, weeds, and diseases do their thing.

  Assuming that the “do nothing” alternative is really not a choice, what should we do?  Prevention is the best first step. Like our own health, the same is true for the garden. It is much better to “nip the problem in the bud” before it becomes a big problem.

Consider some prevention measures:

• Keep plants healthy. Monitor plant growth being aware of any signs of disease, wilt, or pest and take appropriate action.
• Keep the garden clean. Remove or till out grass and weeds as they first appear. Remove any dead plants. Decaying foliage attracts diseases and unwanted pests.
• Plant host plants. There are many plants that attract helpful insects that do not harm the garden and will devour those insects that are harmful. For example, marigolds attract lady bugs that love to dine on aphids.

I have been doing some research (USDA, EPA, etc.) gathering actual facts regarding the use of pesticides in the home garden. You might say the “pros and cons” of using synthetic pesticides. Does this sound like something you might be interested in reading about? Please leave a comment (vote) as to whether or not.

‘Til next time,

Poppy

www.my-garden-world.com

marvin@my-garden-world.com

‘Til Next Time,

Poppy

www.my-garden-world.com

marvin@my-garden-world.com

This is a re-write from last year that I thought you might enjoy.

In early Spring, there were at least a dozen bluebirds that visited our yard every day. It was fun watching them chasing bugs for food. They would find different posts (power lines, tree limbs, etc.) to perch for a “bird’s eye” view of the yard below. You would see one suddenly swoop down and snatch a bug from the grass that may have been up to a hundred feet from their perch.

All I can say is that the bluebird must have one heck of a good eyesight. After making the catch, the bluebird would return to it’s perch to devour it.

All was going well until the mockingbirds realized that the bluebirds were encroaching on their territory. It was an ongoing battle from that point forward. The mockingbirds would chase the bluebirds off and then return to claim the area for their own hunting ground. The bluebirds couldn’t stay away for long however, and would return again and again to get their share of the goodies.

Granny and I had installed a bluebird box on an oak tree in hopes of giving a loving pair of bluebirds a home for raising their young. There was a problem however. The very tree we had selected was a tree that the mockingbirds had used the year prior to nest in. You guessed it- the mockingbirds felt that the oak tree belonged to them and should not be shared with the lowly bluebird.

We became frustrated at the mockingbird’s intolerance. Each time a bluebird would arrive at the box to check it out, the mockingbird would chase it off. Granny had some firm opinions about how she felt about the selfish mockingbirds. In fact, the subject of annihilation was discussed but settled on scaring off the mockingbirds with a BB gun. What a waste of time and the stress of it!

We should have known that nature has a way of taking care of things. When Mr. and Mrs. Bluebird decided it was time, they staked their claim on the box and the whole tree as well. We rooted for the bluebirds as they would chase away each mockingbird that came anywhere close to “their” tree. One case in particular was a hoot! A mockingbird had made a bug catch on the ground just below the bluebird house. While on the ground trying to eat his catch, Mr. Bluebird “dive bombed” the mockingbird until he gave up and got out of there.

The latest. Mr. and Mrs. Bluebird built a nest in their new home and now are proud parents of a brood. It has been a real treat watching them go about house keeping and parenting. One day I saw Mr. Bluebird bring a morsel of food to Mrs. Bluebird who was taking a break from nesting and perched on top of their house.

Now we are waiting to see our babies come out of their nest and take on the world- especially Mr. Mockingbird.

Got any stories to share? Let us hear from you.

Til next time,

Poppy