Jim Schlager, Disney pest-management technician, explains that behind the scenes at Walt Disney World are "banker sites" -- areas containing plants that attract bad bugs. Why? Because the bad bugs attract good bugs, and the Disney gardening staff likes to raise as many good bugs as they can! Papaya, for example, attracts whiteflies, which in turn are preyed on by delphastus beetles. No matter what pest problem you're having, there's a critter available that can help. For example, did you know that one ladybug will eat about 5,000 aphids in its lifetime? The aphid lion, the larval stage of the green lacewing (Chrysopa sp.), has a pair of tonglike pincers that it uses to pierce the bodies of soft insects and suck their juices. Opius, a parasitic wasp, lays eggs inside the serpentine leaf miner, a common pest of tomato plants. Decollate snails (figure A), which generally live about two years, eat the small- to medium-size garden snails that feed on plants. The praying mantis eats a wide variety of insects. All insects release carbon dioxide, and it is this emission that enables beneficial nematodes to track them. The nematodes subsequently crawl into any orifice of an insect and release bacteria that kill the host insect within 24 hours; then they lay their eggs inside. As many as 100,000 nematodes will exit one insect. Release your bugs in the morning when it's cool and moist. Ladybugs won't fly when their wings are wet or when it's dark; spray your plants with a very light mist of sugar water to prevent the ladybugs' flying away.
RESOURCES :
Best Source for Identification of Pests
The first and best source for the identification of pests of all kinds is your local county agricultural extension office. Many extension services or their affiliating state universities offer web pages that aid identification and invite questions by e-mail. You can find links to 35 extension services on line at www. hortnet.com/default.html. Check Virginia Polytechnic University's (Blacksburg, Virginia) site at www. ext.vt.edu/departments/entomology/ornamentals/slideshow.html
Learning About and Living With Insects in the Southwest
Model: 1555610609
Author: Floyd G. Werner and Carl A. Olson
Fisher Books
1994
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