And another good link for beneficial insects.
http://www.metrokc.gov/hazwaste/hous.../goodbugs.html
The reason I started to look for these was that my trees are
suddenly swarming with little fast-moving, red mites. I was
pretty sure, since they were darting around like crazy that they
were predatory mites (plant sucking mites are SLOOOOOW moving)
but I wanted to check.
They're good bugs!!!
However, look as I can, except for a little whitefly on my privet
(what's new?), and a batch of aphids on an as-yet-unknown shrub I
dug last fall from my swamp, I haven't found what they're eating.
It may be a new hatch and they'll disperse elsewhere. I have had
a few large scale on some of my azalea, but I don't think they
are food for these little things. The scale is easily
squishable, through.
BTW, for you folks in OZ, there are a lot of good bug pages by
various educational institutions (look for U of Queensland pages)
down there.
Here in the USA, look for pages from the Univ. of VA, U of FLA,
U. of Mass. Conn. U, U of Iowa, and others. These are all
land-grant schools with big Ag. department and state extension
headquarters.
As usual, when I find a new hatch of some tiny creepy-crawly, I
get all scratchy feeling, though I don't find any on me. ;-)
Jim Lewis -
- Tallahassee, FL - Our life is
frittered away by detail . . . . Simplify! Simplify. -- Henry
David Thoreau - Walden
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