Beneficial-Friendly

[digitS']

Strawflowers (Xerochrysum bracteatum).


The Australian beekeepers know about these flowers, native to Australia. Supposed to be good sources of nectar, there is a honey bee in the picture, one of several this morning. She rudely turned her posterior to the camera so I didn't zoom in on her .

DW likes to have a few strawflowers in the each year so that she can have them for dry arrangements. They have just started to bloom and will be blooming until frost.

The honeybees are not so much the beneficial insects I'm thinking about for my annual vegetable garden. They have lots of acres of alfalfa nearby, as well as vetch and the knapweed has just begun to bloom. No, the yellowjackets and ladybugs will soon be covering these plants. I'm not sure what they are up to but the entomologists tell us that all 3 of these insects drink nectar.

The wasps are a threat to the honeybees so those will move on. Meanwhile, Steve will have to move very slowly and carefully around these plants. The yellowjackets often ride along as I carry strawflowers out of the garden. Of course, the ladybugs do too .

I don't find aphids on the broccoli and cabbage growing beside these plants. This has been the situation for the last few years. Cabbage can be turned into rotten garbage by infestations of aphids. Having strawflowers beside the cabbage seems to eliminate the aphids!

Not surprisingly, I don't have to spray the strawflowers for pests although they suffer a little insect damage during the weeks before they begin to bloom. Beneficial insect magnets !

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

any red or yellow perennials tend to get our interest. not sure how they would fare in our heavy clay soils, but perhaps could find a space for them someplace else. thanks for bringing it up.

 

[digitS']

 

[digitS']

These guys



They are everywhere this year!

I wish they would have been here in these numbers about a month ago.

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

These guys

View attachment 27465

They are everywhere this year!

I wish they would have been here in these numbers about a month ago.

Steve

i was just trying to find a picture of a bug like the one i saw the other day. no luck, but it was very distinctive and i've not seen one like it ever before... it also had some red.

 

[catjac1975]

These guys

View attachment 27465

They are everywhere this year!

I wish they would have been here in these numbers about a month ago.

Steve

Ladybug larvae!!!!

 

[flowerbug]

read up on how to encourage them to stick around during the off seasons.

i think flats of wood stacked with slight spacers next to some rocks would work.

whenever it is above freezing around here the adults are active and all around. some years they invade the house in large numbers and are a smelly mess. i hope i've got the worst of the cracks caulked up now to keep them out. we'll see what happens this fall...

 

[digitS']

I just carried one outside...It was on my pc desk. How it got there, I don't know!

Sure, there were plants in the South Window with the desk beside them. When was that?? Two or three months ago? Absolutely, everywhere!

I watched 3 wind there way up that spiral wire at the end on a hose, towards the faucet. One adult ladybug, one big baby, one tiny baby - adult was in the lead but big baby was faster! BB catches her. She spins around on the other side of the wire, grabs the plastic hose and scrambles to the wire above. Seconds later, BB catches her again and squeezes past! Around and around but now Tiny Baby catches up to the adult! Ladybug flits straight up to the threaded fitting and disappears from my view behind it. At the same moment, BB arrives at the handle of the faucet and freezes.

Looking closer, I realize that BB is eating something. Probably, it's a tiny aphid and maybe even one that I crushed turning the faucet on and off.

Oh, the fragrance of crushed aphid, wafting through the summer air ...

Steve

 

[digitS']

 

[digitS']

Something that surprises me,

... while the local ladybug population has exploded this year, there are very few lacewings.

During hours of darkness, lacewings can be a real bother at the backdoor. They are attracted to the light there. Open the door and in they come, erratic flyers that they are.

I have just escorted the third 2018 lacewing out of the house. This is a very small number, from my experience.

BTW, I realize that lacewing adults do not eat bugs but their larvae might be even more voracious than the ladybugs! Another alligator insect ... one could have nightmares about these 2 bugs!

Steve