About Lacewing Flies: How to Attract Lacewings to Your Garden

By Barbara Pleasant
Published on February 4, 2013
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Illustration By Keith Ward
Lacewing larvae are sometimes called “aphid lions” due to their hooked jaw and ferocious aphid appetite.

This article is part of ourOrganic Pest Control Series, which includes articles on attracting beneficial insects, controlling specific garden pests, and using organic pesticides.    

Lacewing Flies (Chrysoperla rufilabris)

If your landscape includes numerous flowers and native shrubs and trees, you probably have beneficial lacewings in your garden. Several species may inhabit the same garden, including large and small green lacewings, and perhaps brown lacewings if your garden borders on woods.

Adult lacewing flies have light green or brown bodies one-half to 1 inch long, with finely veined transparent wings. Adult lacewings take to the air in the evening, seeking out scents given off by aphid honeydew or caterpillar frass. Female lacewings lay individual eggs near aphid colonies, or on leaves well-populated with other soft-bodied insects. Each egg is raised from the leaf surface by a slender stalk. Females can lay more than 400 eggs. Lacewing larvae feed for about a month, consuming about 600 aphids in that time. Because of their powerful hooked mandibles, lacewing larvae are often called aphid lions. Lacewings are common throughout North America. Multiple generations are common in warm climates.

What Do Lacewings Eat?

Lacewing larvae prey upon aphids, small cabbage worms, and other caterpillars and caterpillar eggs, mealybugs, whiteflies and more. Adult lacewings eat honeydew given off by aphids as well as nectar and pollen; some eat other insects.

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