Problems and Solutions

Gallery of Beneficials

Several species of lady beetles ("ladybugs") are actually quite a help to gardeners. Both the adults and larvae feed on aphids, mealybugs and various insect eggs. They are common and abundant.

Green lacewings look like delicate jewels as they fly and feed on flower nectar. Their voracious larvae eat just about anything in sight. The eggs are easily recognized because they are attached to leaves by long stalks.

Assassin bugs are slow and large, but they're pretty good at keeping many insect populations in check. We often see them within the canopy of our large oak trees.

Perhaps the least appreciated insect predator is the spider. All spiders are predators, with varying methods of catching their prey, from webs to ambush techniques to pitfall traps. Most are harmless to people and should be encouraged.

The small wasp-mimic is actually a syrphid fly. The adults pollinate flowers and take in nectar, while the larvae feed on many insects.

We don't usually see them because of their small size, but many parasitic wasps are common and important destroyers of developing insects. Our tussock moth egg masses are parasitized by naturally occurring Telenomus wasps, which lay their own eggs in the tussock eggs. They are harmless to people and again, so small that they often go unnoticed.