Good Bugs, Better Bugs and Black Widow Spiders

      Much fuss is made over how to attract bees to your garden.  This is a very good goal but you want to also include other insects that can be huge allies…one lady bug will eat 50 aphids a day!  Many garden centers sell them as organic pest control.  If you are lucky enough to find some, grab two or three tubs.   Set them free at dusk…they will settle in for the night and wake up ravenous in their new home…your soon to be aphid-free garden.   

     

I’ve heard that some people will mist them with Coke to temporarily glue their wings shut and ground them. To me this seems like a very hostile start to a budding, mutually beneficial relationship.  Not to mention and extremely rude way to treat a rock star affectionately known as the “Good Luck Bug” in Russia, Turkey and Italy. 

       Another stellar garden overachiever is the praying mantis.  I admit that for many years I had hidden prejudice against the mantis for two reasons…first because they were grouped into same order as cockroaches… the other is that creepy, sexual cannibalism thing hanging over their head.  That all changed the day I saw one stalk and annihilate a scorpion in an epic miniature Godzilla vs. Rodan battle.   

     

     Praying mantises can spot prey from 65 feet away and they will happily devour grasshoppers, cabbage moths, flies and the occasional slug.  Unfortunately, they are not very discerning hunters and will also eat our friends the butterflies, frogs and lizards... and spiders.  I know spiders tow the good bug, bad bug line pretty close.  Personally, I don’t have a problem with them other than one or two bites over a lifetime.  That weighed against a multitude of morning web-covered-in-dew photo ops is something I can live with.  Plus they do eat flies and anything that eats flies should always be encouraged to stay around.   

 

     I do make an exception for black widows…their ankle high webs are nasty, raggedy, sticky sheet metal mesh… so their esthetic contribution does not outweigh the risk.

 

From "Garden Table" by Mango Dragonfly