SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY

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Various species are native throughout North America and can be lured to the garden by planting a variety of flowering plants such as angelica, red cosmos, coreopsis, tansy, or goldenrod. They also appreciate the wild Queen Anne's lace, a weed you may learn to tolerate in modest numbers. Adults also feed on honeydew and prey on the bugs that produce it. Though considered somewhat more stable than ladybugs, lacewings still require sufficient food, in the form of pollen-bearing plants for adults and prey as well as accessible water — or they will leave in search of it.

Praying Mantis

Next to the beloved ladybug, the praying mantis is perhaps the most recognizable insect predator. Their large size — up to five inches — and strange appearance make them fascinating to watch. They come in shades of dull brown to green and are long and slender with strong, enlarged front legs designed for grasping prey.

Included in their dietary repertoire are aphids, various beetles and bugs, leafhoppers, flies, caterpillars, butterflies, and, sadly, beneficials such as bees and wasps. They even prey on each other. The larger they grow, the more likely they are to take on bigger game, not excluding small vertebrates such as salamanders or frogs or even a feisty shrew. Even so, they are not especially aggressive hunters. They prefer to wait patiently for whatever comes their way.

A wasp eating cabbage-moth
larva. Their size (often over one-
inch long and their bright,
contrasting markings make them
hard to miss.

WASPS

A vast array of wasps diligently scour even the tiniest garden plot in search of insect pests. Some to be aware of are the predatory wasps (the kinds that sting) and the parasitic trichogramma, braconid, chalcid, and ichneumon wasps (the kinds that don't).

Trichogramma Wasps

Found throughout North America, the trichogramma wasps are tiny pest-control agents. Several species are known to parasitize more than 200 different pests, including cabbage loopers and cutworms, among other caterpillars and insects. Using her specialized ovipositor, the wasp lays her eggs inside the body of the host, effectively preventing the development of one more pest and releasing as many as 25 new wasps from one parasitized victim.

These tiny wasps, like other parasitic wasps, are harmless to people or animals. They are so small — barely 1/32" long — that when their minuscule eggs are sold, thousands arrive on a one-inch square card that resembles a piece of fine sandpaper. Trichogramma pretiosum is the species most commonly sold for control of garden pests.

Braconid Wasps

Picture a large, fat, lumbering tomato hornworm perched halfway up a tomato-plant stalk. You're just about to pluck this munching menace when you notice something a little bizarre. Though he is chomping contentedly on your prize Better Boy, this hornworm is one you will definitely leave alone. His plump body is covered with tiny silken cocoons, the pupal stages of one species of braconid wasp.

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