Showing posts with label beneficial insects. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beneficial insects. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 02, 2013

What's On The Menu Today: Mole Crickets? Yum Yum

Caught this little guy eating on the run.  Beneficials in the garden aren't only insects but anoles. While this brown anole, Anolis sagrei, is from Cuba and the Bahamas, it's certainly doing good things eating this mole cricket. Bon appetit!

 
 


Monday, August 05, 2013

Evidence of Native Bees



Pink Knock Out Roses
You can easily notice a friendly visit from a native pollinator, the leafcutter bee.  Identifying which species is harder since there are nine different species endemic to Florida.

 
Good news is that leafcutter bees are beneficial as pollinators for crops such as commercial blueberries and vegetables.  In residential landscapes, inviting ornamental plants with thin leaves such as bougainvillea, roses, and redbud trees are more susceptible to the leafcutter.  The visible damage of circular cuts on the outside edges of leaves will be used to build up their nests and usually will not harm the plants, but this non-aggressive bee species can sometimes nest in hollow rose canes, causing the rose to decline. 
 
Credits: David Almquist and David Serrano, University of Florida.
 
Red Knock Out Roses
 
 
 

Monday, January 02, 2012

California Scientists Release Citrus Psyllid Predator

Tamarixia radiata
California scientists just released the Tamarixia radiata - a predator wasp that attacks our dreaded Asian citrus psyllid.

UC Riverside Executive Vice Chancellor Dallas Rabenstein and Mark Hoddle, the director of the Center for Invasive Species Research, released Tamarixia radiata – tiny, stingless parasitic wasps that lay eggs in ACP nymphs – in a citrus grove near the UCR Botanic Gardens. A total of 281 wasps (95 males and 186 females) were released.



Over the next several years, UCR and California Department of Agriculture Food and Agriculture (CDFA) scientists will raise thousands of Tamarixia for release throughout California. The Tamarixia larvae will eat the ACP nymphs, killing them, and emerge as adults about 12 days later. Adult female Tamarixia also eat other ACP nymphs, killing many in the process.
Read more.


Management of Asian Citrus Psyllid - IFAS

Tamarixia radiata - life cycle - Cornell

Why Are My Citrus Leaves Curling?