Killer bugs

 It seems every year I'm discovering a new bug in my garden. I've taken pictures, searched the web, and  asked friends about all the new critters I've found.
Over the last couple years, I've come to know a few of the "good guys" and the "bad guys". Today I will focus on the good ones. There are many beneficial insects for the garden, and I will split them into a couple different categories.

Predatory Beetles

These include the Lady beetle, also known as the ladybug or ladybird, and the iridescent green or blue winged beetles known as ground beetles.
The ladybugs mainly feed on aphids but also eat mites, other soft body insects, and insect eggs. The larvae of the ladybug are scary looking, they kind of look like a black alligator. These little larvae have a crazy appetite. They can consume up to 500 aphids each day. (I've seen conflicting numbers on the web ranging from 50 to 1000) If the adults run out of aphids, they can also survive on nectar and pollen from shallow flower clusters like yarrow and sunflowers. The adult ladybug will over winter under leaf litter, mulches, rocks and lots of other protected places.
Ground beetles feed on all types of insect eggs, including the dreaded potato beetle. Rove beetles eat cabbage maggots, onion maggots and other root maggots.

Lacewings

The larvae of the lacewings attack aphids, mealybugs, thripes, caterpillars and their eggs, mites, and scales, The young can suck out the body fluids of its prey through hollow mandibles. Adults will eat aphids and mealybugs, but will also eat pollen and nectar. An interesting fact about lacewings, if they have no food source, they will become cannibals. 

Predatory wasps

These would include yellow jackets and paper wasps, among others. Yellow jackets will eat caterpillars and will also feed them to their larvae. I've actually seen a yellow jacket eating a cabbage worm on one of my broccoli plants this past year. 

One of my favorite wasps is called the braconid wasp. They are tiny and brightly colored. The cool thing about these wasps is where they lay their eggs. They will lay their eggs in or on cabbage worms, tomato horn worms and other caterpillars. Two years ago, I found a tomato horn worm in my garden with a bunch of white eggs all over its back. This was most likely the work of braconid. I wish I had taken a picture of it. So when these eggs hatch, they start to consume their host while it is still alive.

There are a lot more beneficial insects I could write about, but I will just list a few quickly. They include, hover flies, robber flies, tachinid flies, and minute pirate bugs just to name a few. Oh, and don't forget the awesome praying mantis!

The way some of these bugs and their larvae attack and eat their prey, is like something out of a crazy sci-fi movie. Imagine an alien laying eggs inside your body to consume you, while your still alive! Or maybe it'll prefer to stick you with some kind of needle like appendage and suck out your innards. Maybe it will just attack and start eating you alive!

Nature is a scary but beautiful place.