Mike Harris wrote:
The frittilaries are beautiful - and BT might kill them all off. The wasps
take a "sustainable harvest" and keep them from stripping the plants bare.
It's also fun to watch the wasps "patrol."

Yup. We have lots of those wasps all over the garden. They really like
living under our porch roof, which is ok by us since it's quite tall.

I found this relationship out inadvertently. I overzealously sprayed every
wasp nest I could find ~2 years ago or so, after getting stung for about the
40th time. Within several weeks the fritillary larva population was large
enough so that the passiflorae were down to stems and no longer blooming.

We don't kill any insects except for carpenter and fire ants. Even with
the wasps, we have so many larva that they often eat most of the leaves
of the larger passion vine. It always comes back with a vengeance though.

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Victor M. Martinez
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