Hoobostanky
Active Member
What are your favorite bugs you notice with your outdoor grows? I want to share mine, I have several helpers doing me a lot of favors, keeping my ladies in good shape.
I have a plethora of lizards, chameleons and birds.
I have about 5 praying mantises who respect each other and are quite friendly, but devasting to any bugs who venture onto the gurls.
I bought ladybugs from home depot, three packs and cut the bag at the base of several plants and turned them loose on the gurls...great for aphid cleaning.
Various spiders, including a few black widows I keep in check, and in reserve for those late-night thieves who may have big plans right around harvest time.
There are yellow-jacket wasps who live on the plants and attack anything not symbiotic with the others.
My biggest partner are several species of red ants. They occupy separate plants and really don't like to hang out together. They protect their host veraciously and don't tolerate intruders. I've watched them crawl over the mantises, thinking they are part of the plants!
What have you seen or witnessed? Sorry I don't have pics, maybe I can dig some up from last year...
If you are a back yard grower and spend a lot of time around your plants (I am a sea of green gardner) you start to notice these amazing relationships of various critters. Fascinating. It also allows you to limit the amount of spraying of chemicals, unwanted stuff, etc., to deal with unwanted critters.
So, what is your favorite critter?
Ladybug
Spider
Ant
Praying Mantis
Wasp
Lizards
I have a plethora of lizards, chameleons and birds.
I have about 5 praying mantises who respect each other and are quite friendly, but devasting to any bugs who venture onto the gurls.
I bought ladybugs from home depot, three packs and cut the bag at the base of several plants and turned them loose on the gurls...great for aphid cleaning.
Various spiders, including a few black widows I keep in check, and in reserve for those late-night thieves who may have big plans right around harvest time.
There are yellow-jacket wasps who live on the plants and attack anything not symbiotic with the others.
My biggest partner are several species of red ants. They occupy separate plants and really don't like to hang out together. They protect their host veraciously and don't tolerate intruders. I've watched them crawl over the mantises, thinking they are part of the plants!
What have you seen or witnessed? Sorry I don't have pics, maybe I can dig some up from last year...
If you are a back yard grower and spend a lot of time around your plants (I am a sea of green gardner) you start to notice these amazing relationships of various critters. Fascinating. It also allows you to limit the amount of spraying of chemicals, unwanted stuff, etc., to deal with unwanted critters.
So, what is your favorite critter?
Ladybug
Spider
Ant
Praying Mantis
Wasp
Lizards