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Now THIS is organic pest control

16 years ago

I found this little guy patrolling my outdoor plants. He grazes from the cacti and succulents to my croton, but stays far away from the venus fly traps. Maybe he had a bad encounter. Anyways, I can't think of a better way to keep the pests to a minimum. I haven't seen any myself, but he sticks around so something must be there. He has a keen eye too. Every time I step outside to get a picture of him he eyeballs me like crazy. I can sneak up to the window and peek through the shades and he sees me. Hopefully he sticks around.

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Comments (14)

trace00969
16 years ago
Wow that is so cool! You don't see things like that around here. Thanks for sharing, they are great pics!

Tracy
pepperomia
16 years ago
Awesome pictures!
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water_roots
16 years ago
Oh, how cute...
larry_b
16 years ago
That is cool! I'm in Denver and haven't seen any of those out here. I used to see them all the time when I lived in Lincoln, Nebraska though. They are neat creatures!

Larry

PS Nice pictures.
birdsnblooms
16 years ago
Wow, that is fantastic..Does anyone know what type of insect it is? Is it a Praying Mantis? Toni
m_taggart
Original Author
16 years ago
It IS a praying mantis. I'm not sure what species. The black spot on his wing appears to be a burn. Not sure what could have caused it.
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
16 years ago
It's a praying mantid nymph.
m_taggart
Original Author
16 years ago
How do you know it's a nymph and not adult?
tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
16 years ago
The wings are only half-developed and it will molt another time or two before it reaches full adult stage.

{{gwi:20801}}
Anyone recognize these (other than Dorie - I know she knows)? ;o) They hold great promise too, for a biobugblitz.

Al
toomuchglass
16 years ago
UGH !!!!!!!! What an UGLY BUG !!! As much as I hate bugs - like this one - there are a few that are beneficial. I keep my heebie jeebies to myself and let them go on their way ! LOL
birdsnblooms
16 years ago
Okay, I give up..what am I looking for? LOL..Toni
trace00969
16 years ago
OMG Toni, thank you, I dont know what I am looking at either......is the leaf itself a bug or the white things hanging off?

Tracy
tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
16 years ago
The white things hanging off the leaf on threads are the eggs of a voracious predator called an "aphid lion", which is the larval stage of the lacewing fly.

A long while ago, I had posted this picture somewhere because I didn't recognize the eggs. I still remember that Dorie also accurately ID'd that picture for me, which is why, in fun, I wanted to exclude her from guessing. ;o)

Didn't mean to hijack your thread, MT. I just thought you might find the picture interesting.

Al
m_taggart
Original Author
16 years ago
No offense taken. It's often difficult to identify such things as it's required to describe a picture with words when doing a search. The egg stage is the best time to determine what's in your garden as they can't go anywhere until they hatch and are easy to spot. In a similar way, they are easy to squash in the egg stage, so it's best to know what it is before you get rid of it. In this case, it would be a shame to squash these thinking they're some sort of pest. I had a great garden in PA but never really saw any lacewings. Maybe I wasn't looking closely enough.

An interesting aside, the larvae are cannibalistic. The eggs are presumably laid on long stems apart from one another to reduce cannibalism. Thanks wikipedia.

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