Earwig: Forficula auricularia

Earwig

Forficula auricularia

Earwigs are an interesting insect, they can be considered beneficial insects, but they can also be considered a pest, they have scary rumors going around about going into yours ears at night to do who knows what, and they can look pretty scary . Earwigs can be a common sight in garden areas and if you are wondering what they are doing there, this post will tell you.

Well, when it comes to being a beneficial insect, Earwigs are a predator to aphids which are a common garden pest that tend to deform new growth and buds on many plants including roses. They also largely consume decomposing plant material.

On the other hand, the pest side of things, if they find a plant they like, or are forced to find above ground shelter because of rain, they are known to eat  dahlia, chrysanthemum,clematis, seedlings, potted plants, basil, leafy greens, fruit trees, and occasionally strawberry, raspberry, nectarine and apricot, you will find the plants have been devoured over night, some leaves being ripped to shreds, others partially eaten through. They may leave small black particles of excrement behind as well. Avoid growing susceptible plants close to hedges and walls covered in ivy as these can house a large numbers of earwigs.

Earwigs are rarely seen during daylight unless a rock or other hiding place has been disturbed. They can be found in dark damp places like under rocks, in dense plants, mulch and compost piles.

Aphids

Aphids

Aphids are a small, soft-bodied insect that you can find on many plants in the garden, usually on the new growth and under leaves. They can be green, red, orange, black or white and woolly,  and are usually in clusters on new blooms and new growth, they are a common pest on roses.

The aphids tube-like mouth pierces the soft new growth of the plant and uses it as a straw to draw out fluids it uses to survive. This can cause a plant to be deformed, causes the plant to be more susceptible to disease and can even cause the plants death. 

Although pesticides can be used, the preferable way to deal with these pests is to make sure your plants have the proper nutrients and soil conditions, are planted where they can receive the lighting required for the specific plants, and encourage beneficial insects in your garden. Some well known beneficial insects that feast on aphids are Ladybugs and Green lacewings.

Photo by WikiPedant at Wikimedia Commons [Attribution or CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Beneficial Insects : Lacewings

The Green Lacewing

The Green Lacewing is a common flying insect that is beneficial in the garden with an appetite for aphids and other small soft bodied pests.

Below I have shared some detailed information about them I have obtained from wikipedia.

Head close-up of Apertochrysa edwardsi from Austins Ferry, Tasmania, Australia

Green lacewings are delicate insects with a wingspan of 6 to over 65 mm, though the largest forms are tropical. They are characterized by a wide costal field in their wing venation, which includes the cross-veins. The bodies are usually bright green to greenish-brown, and the compound eyes are conspicuously golden in many species. The wings are usually translucent with a slight iridescence; some have green wing veins or a cloudy brownish wing pattern. The vernacular name "stinkflies", used chiefly for Chrysopa species but also for others (e.g. Cunctochrysa) refers to their ability to release a vile smell from paired prothoracal glands when handled.

Adults have tympanal organs at the forewings' base, enabling them to hear well. Some Chrysopa show evasive behavior when they hear a bat's ultrasound calls: when in flight, they close their wings (making their echolocational signature smaller) and drop down to the ground. Green lacewings also use substrate or body vibrations as a form of communication between themselves, especially during courtship. Species which are nearly identical morphologically may sometimes be separated more easily based on their mating signals. For example, the southern European Chrysoperla mediterranea looks almost identical to its northern relative C. carnea (Common Green Lacewing), but their courtship "songs" are very different; individuals of one species will not react to the other's vibrations.^[2]

Larva of unknown species (from Latvia) camouflaged with sand grains

Adults are crepuscular or nocturnal. They feed on pollen, nectar and honeydew supplemented with mites, aphids and other small arthropods, and some, namely Chrysopa, are mainly predatory. Others feed almost exclusively on nectar and similar substances, and have symbiotic yeasts in their digestive tract to help break down the food into nutrients.^[1]

Larvae have either a more slender "humpbacked" shape with a prominent bulge on the thorax, or are plumper, with long bristles jutting out from the sides. These bristles will collect debris and food remains – the empty integuments of aphids, most notably – that provide camouflage from birds.

Stalked eggs of unknown species, Mainzer Sand (Rheinland-Pfalz, Deutschland)

Larva of Common Green Lacewing (Chrysoperla carnea) or perhaps C. mediterranea feeding on an aphid

Eggs are deposited at night, singly or in small groups; one female produces some 100–200 eggs. Eggs are placed on plants, usually where aphids are present nearby in numbers. Each egg is hung on a slender stalk about 1 cm long, usually on the underside of a leaf. Immediately after hatching, the larvae moult, then ascend the egg stalk to feed. They are voracious predators, attacking most insects of suitable size, especially soft-bodied ones (aphids, caterpillars and other insect larvae, insect eggs, and at high population densities also each other). The larvae may also occasionally bite humans, possibly out of either aggression or hunger.^[3]Therefore, the larvae are colloquially known as "aphid lions" (also spelled "aphidlions") or "aphid wolves", similar to the related antlions. Their senses are weakly developed, except that they are very sensitive to touch. Walking around in a haphazard fashion, the larvae sway their heads from one side to the other, and when they strike a potential prey object, the larva grasps it. Their maxillae are hollow, allowing a digestive secretion to be injected in the prey; the organs of an aphid can for example be dissolved by this in 90 seconds. Depending on environmental conditions, larvae need about 1–3 weeks to pupation which takes place in a cocoon; species from temperate regions usually overwinter as a prepupa, though C. carnea overwinters as newly hatched adults.

Use in biological pest control[edit source]

While depending on species and environmental conditions, some green lacewings will eat only about 150 prey items in their entire life, in other cases 100 aphids will be eaten in a single week. Thus, in several countries, millions of such voracious Chrysopidae are reared for sale as biological control agents of insect and mite pests in agriculture and gardens. They are distributed as eggs, since as noted above they are highly aggressive and cannibalistic in confined quarters; the eggs hatch in the field. Their performance is variable; thus, there is a lot of interest in further research to improve the use of green lacewings as biological pest control. Species that have hitherto attracted wider study and are more or less readily available as captive-bred eggs to deposit out for hatching in pest-infested plant cultures are several members of Chrysoperla as well as Mallada signatus.^[4]

Gardeners can attract these lacewings – and therefore ensure a steady supply of larvae – by using certain companion plants and tolerating beneficial weeds. Chrysopidae are attracted mainly by Asteraceae – e.g. calliopsis (Coreopsis), cosmos (Cosmos), sunflowers (Helianthus) and dandelion (Taraxacum) – and Apiaceae such as dill (Anethum) or angelica (Angelica).

Systematics an

Wikipedia contributors. "Chrysopidae." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 12 Jan. 2017. Web. 27 Jan. 2017.

By SVG version was created by User:Grunt and cleaned up by 3247, based on the earlier PNG version, created by Reidab. - This version created by Pumbaa, using a proper partial circle and SVG geometry features. (Former versions used to be slightly warped.), Public Domain, Link

Aphids

Aphids

Host Plants:

In the garden: Ornamental trees and shrubs, including roses.

On Crops: Most vegetable fruit and ornamental plants.

Description:

Small, soft-bodied pear-shaped insects less than three millimeters long are usually aphids. Depending on species and plant, aphids may be beige, green, yellow or almost black. They tend to congregate in groups on new growth or in leaf crevices. See also black bean aphids and cabbage aphids.

Damage:

There are many symptoms of aphid damage, including decreased growth rates, mottled leaves, yellowing, stunted growth, curled leaves, browning, wilting, low yields and, eventually, death. Along with the loss of plant juices from direct feeding, aphids can spread diseases.

Preventing Problems:

Check plants often for early outbreaks. Clip off and compost stems holding aphid clusters. Encourage beneficial insects including lady beetles, syrphid flies, and lacewings, which are important aphid predators.

Managing Outbreaks:

In small outbreaks, a high pressure spray from the garden hose can help remove aphids from plants. Follow up with two applications of insecticidal soap, one week apart. Be sure to apply the soap spray to leaf undersides and crevices.

Tips:

Lady beetles and their larvae are great beneficial insects to welcome into your garden. Ants tend to be attracted to the honeydew left by aphids, so ant activity can often lead you to aphid colonies.

Praying Mantis

My very favorite of the beneficial insects for sure, these guys will eat just about any insect pest you have in your garden, they are even known to eat each other!  They live about one year and lay their eggs in fall. A majority of the Beneficial Insects in your garden will eat certain bugs, but the Praying Mantis will eat just about any other insect. They are fierce little hunters, and boy do they put up a good fight. They are known as Ambush Attackers, pouncing on nearby prey after stalking them or waiting patiently in their camouflage until the time is right.

So what do these guys eat for dinner? Well, just about anything smaller than them that they can over-power.The Mantis has little spikes on their front legs which gives them a good grasp on their unlucky victims and they have been known to not only eat insects, if they get large enough they will attack frogs and lizards as well, I personally have never witnessed this thank goodness, I love frogs!!

This all might make them sound a little scary, but they can be a gardener's best friend and they are just so neat! I hope every year to have that one praying mantis make his little home in the plants near the porch so I can go out and see him every summer morning.

beneficial insects

The Ladybug, A.K.A." Ladybird Beetle"

     Introducing the Ladybug, this tiny little flying beetle is not only a pretty accent to your garden, it's also good to have around! You know those pesky aphids and scale bugs that love to feast on the new growth of your plants ,deforming them,  and how they love just ruining your roses? Well this pretty little beetle will eat them up, breakfast, lunch and dinner! The larva may not even look related, but they sure love eating those pests too.

The larva of a lady bug doesn't look much like its parents, instead, it looks almost like a soft small, black caterpillar with only the six small legs at the top of the body and small orange spots. They are found in the same places you would find the adults because they eat the same thing. In the two to three weeks they are in this stage they can eat up to 400 aphids! Next they go through a stage where they will attach themselves to a leaf and pupate. After about a week, they emerge as the Ladybug.

In North America, where I live in California, we are used to seeing the red ladybug with black spots, once I think I may have seen a Golden one. But they actually come in a few other colors; Blue, Purple, Pink, Brown, Green, Black, And Gray.

 The Blue and Purple Ladybugs live in Hawaii

The Pink Lady Bugs live in live in North America, I have never seen one but it sure sounds pretty! Gray Ladybugs are known to live in Alabama in the United States.

There are also ladybugs that can be pests and actually eat your plants as well. If you decide you want the beneficial  guys to live in your garden, they can be purchased online. When you purchase them online you know they will be the ladybugs you want.

 The Blue and Purple Ladybugs live in Hawaii

 There are also ladybugs that can be pests and actually eat your plants as well. If you decide you want the beneficial  guys to live in your garden, they can be purchased online. When you purchase them online you know they will be the ladybugs you want.beneficial insects

beneficial insects