You can’t talk about beneficial insects without taking a moment to revel in the weirdness that is the praying mantis. That’s exactly what The Educated Gardner’s Simone Smith and I did the other day. We had to stop the interview to geek out extensively on these eccentric green helpers.
I even squealed like a schoolgirl upon seeing Smith’s coveted mantis egg case, located under an unassuming branch in her nursery. The hard, oval substance looked a lot like Styrofoam and appeared to be just as sturdy. When the self-described “nature freak” finds a surplus of egg cases in her backyard, she loves to gives them away.
“If you ever find an egg case like this, you’re in luck,” Smith said.
After an afternoon with Smith, I now know all sorts of obscure things about a too often invisible world—a world that buzzes all around us and beneath our feet, whether we know it or not.
Like these fun facts: Praying mantises can turn their heads a full 180 degrees. Lady mantises sometimes eat their mates, even beheading their lovers before they’ve consummated the relationship (as it turns out the male mantis is a better lover when his brain is detached from his abdominal ganglion). They have binocular vision, but only one ear.
But what’s really cool? Mantises, like so many other beneficial bugs, love to feast on all kinds of pesky critters that can lay waste to your garden. This article is a love letter to our beneficial insect friends; to all the forgotten heroes of our raised beds and veggie patches.
When you think spring, do you think ladybugs? Well, you should. Be sure to pick up a batch from your local nursery next spring (call first to see if they’re in stock). Smith warns that it’s always a good idea to release the tiny red bugs into your garden in the morning.
“First, give them a bit of water because they get really thirsty,” Smith said. “You want to release them at the base of the plant, where a lot of aphid infestation exists. Ladybugs will immediately try to find food and eat.”
“Food,” in this case, can be interchanged with “aphid.”
Worried that your ladybugs have flown away after a huge free meal? Think again. Smith knows that the creatures eat, mate, and leave their eggs behind on the undersides of leaves. Remember: The aphids may return before the new round of ladybugs hatch, but that’s OK. Once they do, the juvenile “ladybug lions” (black with orange spots) are even more voracious than their parents.
Now onto an insect that’s less cute and cuddly but just as helpful. Chances are you haven’t heard much about the hoverfly—which is a shame, because you’ve probably mistaken them for a bee a zillion times. Thanks to an evolutionary perk, the flies are almost indistinguishable from bees at first glance (they have yellow and black striped bodies but only two wings instead of four and no stinger). A friend growing up used to call the creatures “tickle bees” because they looked so similar, but couldn’t harm—well—a fly.
“They also eat aphids as well as mites and small pesky insects,” Smith said. “They, along with a lot of other beneficial insects, like plants in the aster family, composite flowers like sunflowers and daisies.”
Note: These plants are really “flowers within flowers.” Look closely next time you come across a dandelion and chrysanthemum and you’ll see what I mean. Depending on where hoverflies are in their life cycle, they could be feasting on pollen or eating nasty pests—both a boon to your garden.
Now, onto parasitic wasps, which sound absolutely frightening (and they are if you’re the size of a pencil eraser). As you may have already guessed, these little rock stars lay their eggs inside their hosts, usually aphids and caterpillars. Lucky for you, they’re also attracted to the same flowers that bees and other pollinators like, so take note if you see a funny looking aphid crawling up the side of a leaf.
“If you see an aphid that looks blown up, fat and round like a balloon, with a round patch on its back, you know you have the wasps,” Smith said. “New wasps will emerge from the aphid over time.”
Note: Aphids can come in all kinds of colors: black, red, yellow, and other colors. Oh, and if you see them in conjunction with a large ant infestation, they may actually be in cahoots.
Truly! It’s a war out there, people.
“Aphids secrete a fluid that the ants eat, so ant colonies will actually protect them from predators,” Smith said. “Sometimes you can help control the aphid population by controlling the ant population. Really, there’s all kinds of stuff going on that people don’t notice.”
Could there be more of an understatement?
Of course, we all know about the very visible bee, which adores purple flowers like rosemary and lavender (really, they just want an assortment to choose from, so go wild in terms of diversity).
On the flipside, way underground, happy worms love to aerate your soil and leave nutrient rich worm castings (good for plants).
Want to cultivate a better relationship with the wrigglers in your world? Give them lots of plant matter to eat like leaves, mulch, and compost (and don’t forget a little moisture. Worms hate dry soil).
Whatever you do, avoid spraying toxic pesticides in your garden, and instead try to understand the web of life and where the imbalance may exist. This sounds like a no-brainer, but Smith finds herself repeating herself quite a bit. “Think before you spray” might be her unofficial mantra.
“If you spray and kill everything, you won’t have any beneficial insects; you won’t have anything at all,” Smith said.
Another word of advice for folks looking to bolster their growing grounds? Get off your screen and get into the green. It’s amazing how much you can learn from simple observation. In fact, that’s exactly how Smith became the proud bug geek she is today. Next time you have a free evening, put down your Instagram feed and go outside. Find a pitch-black area and look down at the ground. Who knows—maybe you’ll see the tiny neon pulse of a glowworm, one of Smith’s favorite insect friends.
Smith proves that you’re never too old to commune with bugs. It’s never too late to learn the language and jump into the conversation.
“I grew up exploring outside and looking at all the little details of our natural world. That’s something lost on the younger generation,” Smith said. “When you get too sucked into technology, you become oblivious to the world around you. I want to cultivate a sense of exploration for everyone, at every age.”
Contributor Hayley Thomas thinks praying mantises are nothing short of badass. She can be reached at hthomas@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Jul 21-28, 2016.