Beneficial Insects
Forum Archives
KenRev
Location: United States
Posted: Apr-06-2004 at 3:49pm
I would like to know if anyone has had good experiences with beneficial insects for the control of aphids and other pests.
Additionally, I'm curious if praying mantises do well in the Seattle area or is it too cold?
Ken
Ken R.
Seattle Area
DebbieTT
Location: Washington, Kitsap Peninsula
Posted: Apr-06-2004 at 5:37pm
Ken, Yes my organic garden wouldn't do well if it wasn't for them. But I do not import them in as that can create more problems. Instead I create a habitat that invites the natives to the garden to stay. Its a balancing act.
If you buy lady bugs and release them they immediately go some place other than your garden. So you might as well take the bucks it costs and burn it in the fireplace for the good it will do. Praying mantises are not going to be that much help. What you want are the native predator wasps, lace wings, lady bugs and other beneficials. To get them you need to create a habitat for them. Good thread btw and welcome to Rainy Side Gardeners!
Lisa A
Location: Oregon, Greater Portland Metro
Posted: Apr-06-2004 at 6:56pm
Ken, I use beneficial insects all the time in my garden with fantastic results but other than buying one bag of ladybugs several years back (and that was to please the kids) I don't buy them. So far, I haven't had any need to buy beneficials. As Debbie said, create the right habitat for them and they will come hang out and munch the baddies. This is not to say I don't get aphids at all - I do. But their numbers are greatly reduced and I rarely do anything - or need to - to address their numbers.
Aphids predators include ladybugs, lacewings and a beneficial wasp. It is the young of these insects that eat the most aphids. The adults will eat them but not as many. For adults, you need to provide food in the form of pollen and nectar. Add plants from the sunflower family such as yarrow, Achillea millefolium, to your garden. These plants with their flat flower heads (safe landing pads) and multiple flowers (what looks like one flower to us is actually multiple flowers) will bring them in. I have done this and I find ladybugs in my garden all the time, even in winter (they over-winter). I also have found eggs of the green lacewing strung along a branch of Eastern bleeding heart Dicentra eximia. It was very exciting!
For more info about aphids, here's a page with useful info from the Washington Toxics Coalition. Aphids - safe and successful It's always good to know the enemy.
Oh, two more things.
If you use pesticides, careful what you use. Any broad spectrum pesticide (synthetic or organic) will kill the baddies and the good guys and the bad guys always come back much faster and meaner than the good guys. Don't assume organic pesticides are "safe". I cringe when I hear someone recommend tobacco sprays as "safe" simply because it's organic. Nicotine is a highly toxic substance and will kill aphids, ladybugs, etc - and it can cause serious health problems if used incorrectly. I would never recommend it.
Secondly, learn to recognize the larval stage of the good guys (ladybugs and lacewings look like little alligators, very cool looking) and aphids that have been parasitized (wasps lay their eggs inside aphids and the young eat their way out, just like in Alien). This will let you know that you've got good guys in your garden and to give them a little time to make headway before taking more action, especially if it will hurt them. Plus it gives you another reason to go cruise through your garden and get to know it intimately.
I've seen praying mantis egg cases for sale (anyone know if they are native here? I can't recall) and they are cool looking but their downside is that they are non-selective eaters. They'd eat a ladybug as quickly as an aphid. Hey, what can you expect from an insect whose female eats the male after mating! Yikes!
Lisa A
Location: Oregon, Greater Portland Metro
Posted: Apr-06-2004 at 7:00pm
Oh, I found a very cool OSU site with pictures of beneficial insect larvae! See here
Look closely at the lady bug larva - it's eating an aphid!
Click on a thumbnail picture and it'll bring up more pictures and information. There are a lot of beneficials that eat aphids! Woo hoo!
Garden Spider
Location: Washington, Puget Sound Corridor
Posted: Apr-07-2004 at 8:24am
Lisa, thanks for the link!
I'm seeing more beneficial insects around my house now, and fewer pests. When we moved into this house, 10 years ago, aphids were everywhere. Every plant had billions--the stems and leaves were coated with them. I tried the ladybugs . . . and provided all my neighbors with ladybugs, as they all flew away immediately on release. I did spray heavily infested plants with insecticidal soap in the beginning. I haven't used it for years, though. But beyond that, the aphid population has greatly reduced, without my doing anything except 1) getting rid of plants that were damaged beyond saving; 2) buying plants and cultivars that were more resistant or less attractive to aphids; 3) hosing off infected plants with a strong stream of water; 4) providing habitat for birds and trying to attract them; 5)encouraging the beneficial insects to stay.
Praying mantises are native to the East Coast. When I was stationed in Maryland during the 70's, I saw a lot of them. I bought my first brand-new car there, a pocket sized Dodge Colt, a little larger than a suitcase. One day, a Praying Mantis got in through an open window, and I didn't notice until it began flying around the inside of the car. Excitement is driving 75 mph on the freeway, with a 6 inch long heavily armed insect flying around the interior of a sub-sub compact car. They are really neat bugs, though.
Maryland is also where I saw my first Walking Stick, a relative of the Praying Mantis. They do look exactly like a green twig. I was hiking along a country road, and a green twig came walking out of the woods along the side, crossed the road, sipped out of a puddle, and disappeared into the woods on the other side.
Barb
Screaming Eagle
Location: Puget Sound corridor
Posted: Apr-07-2004 at 9:55am
Great info Lisa and very timely. I'm haveing a little, ahem, aphid problem and am anxious for those good guys, GOOD GUYS WHERE ARE YOU??? I need to go give them a good spray with the hose until the good guys show up!
JeanneK
Location: Oregon, Greater Portland Metro
Posted: Apr-07-2004 at 10:39am
I agree with the posts above. Go organic and they will come (beneficial insects). It is a leap of faith. But I am too lazy to do any more, and it just kind of happened.
I accept the fact that a plant or two may get aphids or powery mildew. Usually it is just the lupine that gets aphids and the bee balm that gets powery mildew. I have tried to remove both plants, but they keep coming back. As long as the disease doesn't spread, I am willing to sacrifice a plant or two.
Also, I seem to have a smaller number of slugs. May be due to a drier spring.
Good luck!
Jeanne
Karchita
Location: Lost
Posted: Apr-10-2004 at 8:30pm
Do birds eat aphids? Enough to help with control? If so, which birds?
Has anyone had experience, good or bad, with using nasturtiums as aphid traps? It sounds interesting, but I am not so clear on the details and a little bit skeptical.
I have had a lot of aphids and had very little success in controlling them, but I have only been in my place for a few years and am doing a lot of remediation to the bio-sphere around here.
Karchita
Lisa A
Location: Oregon, Greater Portland Metro
Posted: Apr-11-2004 at 12:01pm
Yes, Karchita, birds do eat aphids. In the garden of a friend (and ex-boss), bushtits visit and pick clean all the aphids on her pearly everlastings, Anaphalis margaritacea. There is always a slight delay between when the aphids arrive and the bushtits but it never fails that they do and take care of the pests for her.
Insects provide an important source of protein for birds. There are a lot of insectivorous birds, bushtits and chickadees are two that come to mind. I love these little birds - they gladden my heart when they visit. Hummingbirds also eat a fair number of insects, too, although I don't know, off hand, which ones. They don't just live on nectar.
When I grow nasturtiums, the pest that bothers them the most isn't aphids but white flies so I can't help with your other question.
Phlox
Location: Washington, Southwestern
Posted: Apr-12-2004 at 12:12am
Aphids looove my Fire bush. The best year it had was when I used a rose systemic around the base of it, but now I either hose them off or just pinch off the new growth where they like to live.
I had a really nice honeysuckle quite a few years ago that I got rid of because of the gray aphids. They were so bad you almost couldn't see the plant......bye,bye, plant .
I have quite a lot of birds that come to my yard but I never really have seen them eating the aphids......they probably eat the good guys though! The chickadees are real good at getting the spiders......and I think I need to get some of that sticky stuff for the ants.
Thanks for all the helpful info guys........Linda
"The only limit to your garden is at the boundaries of your imagination." -Thomas D.Church
KenRev
Location: United States
Posted: Apr-14-2004 at 4:11pm
Thanks for all the responses and good information. I'll certainly try to foster the right environment for the good insects.
Ken R.
Seattle Area
cjmiller
Location: Oregon, Willamette Valley
Posted: Jul-13-2004 at 5:38pm
Remember the childhood poem?
"Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home..."
Because that is exactly what they do, so, yes, it is a waste of money to bring ladybugs to your home because they wont stay ..."they just wanna go home."
Carol
Sydnie
Location: Western Washington
Posted: Jul-14-2004 at 10:52am
My cherry trees were loaded with big black aphids this year. Being one who uses almost nothing in her garden, I decided that as long as they weren't eating other plants that they were just fine and dandy right where they were. When I went back to check on them, a week or so later, lo and behold the trees were full of lady bug pupea. (not sure about the spelling) And I do mean full... and there isn't one little old aphid on either tree! How cool is that!!! (I took pictures... but with my camera couldn't quite get a well focused shot. Darn... I neeeeed a better camera. LOL.)
CJ >>> I had read that they stay if they have food and water. So the problem becomes, how do you get them to stay after they eat all the aphids??? I guess I'll have to read some more and see if there is a way. I sure would like them to hang out here at my house. LOL.
Lisa thanks for the links- I'll have to check those out !!!
This guys pictures are great. Click on larvae and pupae after the page opens. Go to "here to see"
Gardening for the Homebrewer: Grow and Process Plants for Making Beer, Wine, Gruit, Cider, Perry, and More
By co-authors Debbie Teashon (Rainy Side Gardeners) and Wendy Tweton