![\"Steel](\"https:\/\/growgoodnz.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/10-best-beneficial-insects-570x490.jpg\")
<\/a>Steel Blue ladybird<\/p><\/div>\n
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Here’s an interesting article about beneficial insects around your garden. It’s written by Ruud Kleinpaste in the NZ Gardener magazine.If you get a chance to hear him speak, grab it. He is a fantastic communicator about the place of bugs in our world.<\/p>\n
10<\/b>\u00a0best\u00a0beneficial insects<\/b>\u00a0| NZ GardenerNZ Gardener<\/a><\/p>\n 1. Steel-blue ladybird larvae<\/strong> 2. Mealybug-munching ladybirds 3. Harvestmen 4. Spiders 5. Predatory mites 6. Hoverflies<\/strong> 7. Ground beetles<\/strong> 8. Parasitic flies<\/strong> 9. Parasitic wasps 10. Ichneumon wasps – See more at: http:\/\/nzgardener.co.nz\/10-best-beneficial-insects\/#sthash.ZCjVJvop.dpuf<\/p>\n<\/div>\n 10 best beneficial insects Here’s an interesting article about beneficial insects around your garden. It’s written by Ruud Kleinpaste in the NZ Gardener magazine.If you get a chance to hear him speak, grab it. He is a fantastic communicator about the place of bugs in our world. … Continue reading
\nYes, I know: everybody loves ladybirds.\u00a0These beetles eradicate aphids on your\u00a0prized roses and other ornamentals. But\u00a0they don\u2019t eat as much as you might think.\u00a0It\u2019s actually their larvae that consume\u00a0a fair amount of prey when they are in full\u00a0growth cycle. Think teenagers, fridges,\u00a0pantries and hollow legs.\u00a0Although a few ladybird species scoff\u00a0aphids as their preferred food source,\u00a0others will grab anything that walks by:\u00a0psyllids, caterpillars, mites and whitefly.\u00a0So when it comes to lowering specific\u00a0pest populations, only those ladybirds\u00a0that confine themselves to one or two\u00a0types of prey are reasonably useful.\u00a0A good example is the steel-blue\u00a0ladybird (Halmus chalybeus<\/em>). It feeds\u00a0on scale insects and loves to cruise the\u00a0very places where its prey is common:\u00a0up your citrus trees and on your flax,\u00a0hydrangeas and rose bushes.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>The so-called mealybug ladybird has\u00a0a tongue-twister of a scientific name:\u00a0Cryptolaemus montrouzieri<\/em>. I think it\u2019s\u00a0beautiful \u2013 it sounds like a song.\u00a0Anybody with an issue with mealybugs\u00a0knows how difficult it is to control these\u00a0woolly sap suckers. Mineral oil sprays\u00a0need to be applied regularly and even the harshest systemic insecticides are\u00a0often not enough to eliminate them.\u00a0Thank goodness, then, for the\u00a0mealybug ladybird. Its larvae are always\u00a0on the hunt for a mouthful of cotton wool.\u00a0Ironically, these ladybird larvae also just\u00a0happen to look like overgrown mealybugs:\u00a0yep\u2026 a wolf in sheep\u2019s clothing.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>I\u2019d like to take a look at the creatures we\u00a0often call daddy long-legs. Our silly use of\u00a0vernacular names has led to a confusing\u00a0situation in which all sorts of unrelated\u00a0invertebrates are given that label simply\u00a0because they have one thing in common:\u00a0long, fragile legs. The harvestman has\u00a0eight of them and a body that consists\u00a0of just one discernible segment.\u00a0This predator, somewhat related to\u00a0a spider, tends to run around the ground\u00a0and the lower parts of plants. Anything\u00a0of suitable size can be prey, from its own\u00a0siblings to small slugs. Although it is\u00a0a very general predator \u2013 making it\u00a0a relatively useless predator for specific\u00a0pest species \u2013 it has the ability to\u00a0survive in unsprayed gardens when\u00a0there aren\u2019t many pests about. That\u00a0means that harvestmen are often the\u00a0first ones on the job when pests wake\u00a0up and start to multiply in spring.\u00a0There are 12 species of harvestmen,\u00a0but\u00a0Phalangium opilio<\/em>\u00a0is the one that\u00a0appears to be most partial to the eggs\u00a0of the cabbage white butterfly.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Ah \u2013 arachnids! People often hate them, but I reckon\u00a0they\u2019re brilliant, especially as they all have clever strategies\u00a0to capture their prey. Some jump on their quarry;\u00a0others run them down. Web builders employ the\u00a0ambush trick, while others encourage moths to visit\u00a0their web sites by releasing a chemical that smells like\u00a0irresistible pheromones (sex scents) from a female moth.\u00a0The poor male moths think they are going in for the kill\u00a0and end up being the kill instead.\u00a0There\u2019s a wonderful statistic from the UK that says that\u00a0all the spiders over there collectively capture and eat an\u00a0equivalent quantity of insect meat, every year, to the\u00a0total weight of the human population in that country.\u00a0They may make you shudder, but please look after your\u00a0spiders; we need them more than they need us.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>These are useful little tyrants to have\u00a0in any garden. The largest species, and\u00a0the easiest to spot with an un-aided eye, is the bright crimson whirlygig mite (Anystis baccarum<\/em>). It runs around like an idiot in a ploy to cover as much ground \u2013 or leaf \u2013 as possible,\u00a0to increase the chance of encountering\u00a0its prey. I\u2019ve seen them carrying away\u00a0caterpillars four times their own size!\u00a0Another much smaller, dull-red\u00a0predator mite can often be found wandering among colonies of spider\u00a0mites. Just look at your beans, pipfruit,\u00a0stone fruit or box hedges. This predator\u00a0(Phytoseiulus persimilis<\/em>) quietly goes\u00a0about its business, eating spider mites\u00a0and their eggs.\u00a0Phytoseiulus persimilis<\/em>\u00a0is so good\u00a0at its job that it is bred in captivity (by\u00a0BioForce and Zonda) to help commercial\u00a0growers keep spider mite infestations\u00a0down in their crops. It\u2019s a mighty,\u00a0domesticated control agent.<\/p>\n
\nHoverflies \u2013 those smallish flies that hover dead-still\u00a0in front of flowers all over your garden \u2013 have very\u00a0clever maggots. Some of our native species lay their\u00a0eggs amongst aphid colonies and they do that for\u00a0a good reason: their maggots are carnivores and\u00a0wreak havoc and carnage in the aphid population.<\/p>\n
\nStealth and speed, determination\u00a0and voracious predatory behaviour are\u00a0some of the traits associated with\u00a0these black beetles, commonly found\u00a0in your garden\u2019s litter and mulch layers.\u00a0Their official scientific family name\u00a0is Carabidae (carabid beetles) and\u00a0I suppose they\u2019re in the shape of the\u00a0archetypal beetle. You can\u2019t miss them.\u00a0These beetles have sharp mandibles\u00a0(even as immatures or grubs) that can\u00a0pick up and hold any type of prey that\u00a0fits the right dimensions. Their job is\u00a0to \u201ckeep the balance\u201d down in the soil.\u00a0But some species have a wonderful\u00a0preference for slugs\u2026 and that, surely,\u00a0is music to many a gardener\u2019s ears!<\/p>\n
\nBelieve it or not, there are parasitic\u00a0flies buzzing about in your garden.\u00a0Trigonospila brevifacies<\/em>\u00a0is a small (half\u00a0the size of a common housefly) but\u00a0beautiful fly that \u00a0as introduced to\u00a0New Zealand from Australia in the\u00a01960s to help control nuisance\u00a0leafroller caterpillars in orchards.\u00a0The female fly lays a single egg just\u00a0behind the leafroller caterpillar\u2019s head.\u00a0The maggot that hatches immediately\u00a0burrows into the caterpillar\u2019s body and\u00a0starts eating its innards. How cool is\u00a0that? Just like in the film The Mummy,\u00a0the maggot completes its lifecycle\u00a0inside its host, before a new parasitic\u00a0fly emerges through the wasted body.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Some parasitoids are host specific and\u00a0are therefore really good at controlling\u00a0pests. Two species are very much in\u00a0demand by commercial growers \u2013\u00a0Encarsia formosa<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Aphidius colemani<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 and both are commercially available.\u00a0Encarsia formosa<\/em>\u00a0is perhaps the most\u00a0famous parasitic wasp in the world.\u00a0It has long been used to control whitefly on greenhouse tomatoes.\u00a0Aphidius colemani<\/em>\u00a0is a small parasitic\u00a0wasp that lays its eggs inside aphids.\u00a0To attract these parasitoids, plant\u00a0wildflowers, especially umbelliferous\u00a0species such as wild carrot, parsley\u00a0and Queen Anne\u2019s lace. They provide\u00a0a smorgasbord of pollen and nectar.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>These larger parasitoids are quite visible and elegant to watch as they\u00a0search your plants for smells and trails of caterpillars and other potential\u00a0hosts. Their antennae move constantly, sometimes \u201cdrumming\u201d on\u00a0leaves and twigs to pick up chemical cues.\u00a0Some ichneumonids parasitise caterpillars; others go for the pupae or\u00a0chrysalids. A particularly beautiful black and white species with orange\u00a0and black legs, known as\u00a0Xanthocryptus novozealandicus<\/em>, sniffs out\u00a0lemon tree borer grubs inside the twigs, depositing an egg inside the\u00a0host\u2019s body. Instead of a borer beetle, another ichneumonid wasp will\u00a0hatch from the internally consumed body.<\/p>\n