897tgigvib
Garden Master
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2012
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Usually when one hears about or uses Biological Controls for pests, it's bugs or insects one thinks of.
Those beneficial insects can be really great! For one thing, a box of Ladybugs contains hundreds or thousands of them and then they make hundreds or thousands of larvae from the ones that stick around. There are surely problems that had to be figured out how to ship them, how they could make money doing it, breeding farm techniques, the whole works.
Buying Lacewings, Ladybugs, Praying Mantis, and some other bugs like that is a really great thing.
But there are definitely some other BENEFICIALS that are not popularly sold.
They aren't glamorous.
They don't have money making potential.
Shipping them has other problems.
Some of these others are even better, and do not have a market.
How does one package and ship a hundred TOADS? or FROGS?
How many SPIDERS that look like they could do you some serious damage could a small company sell to gardeners or mini farms? I mean, even a lot of seasoned growers still stomp Box Spiders. Really now, most spiders can't even sink a mandible into Mammal skin. Most of them that can barely can, and unless a person is allergic, it's just a sting or a red spot. (((NOTE: ALLERGIES CAN HAVE SUDDEN ONSET.)))
Toads really gobble up a lot of bugs. Frogs do too. Spiders get a lot too.
BATS are really great to have around. The bats we have here have the most beautiful fur. They stay out of the way of people, find a quiet dark spot to sleep all day, and when they fly around at night they are gobbling up thousands of mosquitoes, flies, gnats, moths, and other bugs that fly. Each one gets thousands of bad bugs. Our bats are not known to have spread rabies, but I suppose it could happen. Some bats are not known vectors, carriers, while other kinds are.
Salamanders, (my personal animal totem), quietly eat grubs, and bad larvae. Most are very beautifully colored, and a lot are rare, and would be good to increase. In most habitats they would improve things.
Then there are LIZARDS. Some Lizards will munch vegetation. Some will chew a cotyledon off to play with when they are kids. Yes, Lizards are kids for the first year of their lives. Playful, silly. Some kinds of Lizards don't touch plants with their mouths at all. Those are the kinds that would make great beneficials.
Ya see, having one kind of BENEFICIAL is not complete. Having a whole network of them keeps a regular hierarchy going. Food Chains include beneficials eating and feeding each other. A big Lizard might eat a small frog, but hopefully after the small frog cleans out a bunch of aphids or something.
SPIDERS
BATS
TOADS
SALAMANDERS
LIZARDS
FROGS
In addition to the more common Ladybugs and Mantis...
Those beneficial insects can be really great! For one thing, a box of Ladybugs contains hundreds or thousands of them and then they make hundreds or thousands of larvae from the ones that stick around. There are surely problems that had to be figured out how to ship them, how they could make money doing it, breeding farm techniques, the whole works.
Buying Lacewings, Ladybugs, Praying Mantis, and some other bugs like that is a really great thing.
But there are definitely some other BENEFICIALS that are not popularly sold.
They aren't glamorous.
They don't have money making potential.
Shipping them has other problems.
Some of these others are even better, and do not have a market.
How does one package and ship a hundred TOADS? or FROGS?
How many SPIDERS that look like they could do you some serious damage could a small company sell to gardeners or mini farms? I mean, even a lot of seasoned growers still stomp Box Spiders. Really now, most spiders can't even sink a mandible into Mammal skin. Most of them that can barely can, and unless a person is allergic, it's just a sting or a red spot. (((NOTE: ALLERGIES CAN HAVE SUDDEN ONSET.)))
Toads really gobble up a lot of bugs. Frogs do too. Spiders get a lot too.
BATS are really great to have around. The bats we have here have the most beautiful fur. They stay out of the way of people, find a quiet dark spot to sleep all day, and when they fly around at night they are gobbling up thousands of mosquitoes, flies, gnats, moths, and other bugs that fly. Each one gets thousands of bad bugs. Our bats are not known to have spread rabies, but I suppose it could happen. Some bats are not known vectors, carriers, while other kinds are.
Salamanders, (my personal animal totem), quietly eat grubs, and bad larvae. Most are very beautifully colored, and a lot are rare, and would be good to increase. In most habitats they would improve things.
Then there are LIZARDS. Some Lizards will munch vegetation. Some will chew a cotyledon off to play with when they are kids. Yes, Lizards are kids for the first year of their lives. Playful, silly. Some kinds of Lizards don't touch plants with their mouths at all. Those are the kinds that would make great beneficials.
Ya see, having one kind of BENEFICIAL is not complete. Having a whole network of them keeps a regular hierarchy going. Food Chains include beneficials eating and feeding each other. A big Lizard might eat a small frog, but hopefully after the small frog cleans out a bunch of aphids or something.
SPIDERS
BATS
TOADS
SALAMANDERS
LIZARDS
FROGS
In addition to the more common Ladybugs and Mantis...
