What do you think of when you hear the term “pest control”? For many gardeners, chemical sprays are the first thing to come to mind. There’s a begrudging acceptance of this type of pest control in modern gardening. But the problem is that many chemical pesticides are nondiscriminatory about what they’re exterminating. Sure, you might wipe out a nasty cluster of aphids or whiteflies, but you can also do permanent damage to the plants that you’re looking to protect.
Before we get too deep into pest control, let’s preface everything with a review of the three main plant stressors: Environment, Pathogens, and Pests
Environment
Environmental damage is the most common type of plant damage. Inclement weather, pollution, sunlight exposure, water availability, nitrogen saturation, and so much more have the ability to negatively impact your plant’s health just as effectively as a pathogen or pest. Basic checks like determining the pH of your soil and verifying that you are not over- or underwatering your plant should always step one when you notice something is wrong.
Pathogens
Pathogens are typically bacterial or fungal for plants. We’re focused more on pests than plants in this article, but if your plant has contacted a pathogen, your best bet is usually to remove the infected area and burn it. Some fungicides and bactericides have been developed. Similar to how a cold spreads among humans, plant pathogens will infect your entire garden if you don’t isolate the disease.
Pests
Pests are similar to pathogens in that they spread from plant to plant. Instead of microscopic spores and bacteria, pests are composed of a much more familiar lineup. Common garden pests include aphids, thrips, whiteflies, leafhoppers, spider mites, and mealybugs. You can also include mammals like rabbits and moles in this list, though they require different control methods than insects. Unlike pathogens, sprays and sanitation/trimming aren’t your only tools to deal with insect pests. Instead, you can introduce beneficial insects to your garden.
The green lacewing is one of these beneficial insects, and they’re regarded as an effective general predator of soft-bodied insects. Establishing a lacewing colony can ease the burden of monitoring your garden for pests, but even better, they also remove the need for chemical pesticides that can affect pollinators and damage your plants. Green lacewings do not eat plants, nor do they target beneficial insects like bees. Instead, they naturally go after soft-bodied best insects.
You can introduce green lacewings to your garden while they are in three different stages of their life cycle.
Introduce lacewing eggs to your plants when you are looking to establish a population at the start of the growing season. It can take between 3-10 days for the eggs to emerge, and the larvae inside the eggs generally want it to be over 70 degrees Fahrenheit before they hatch.
Introduce lacewing larvae to your plants if you are combating an immediate pest infection. Lacewings only eat aphids and other pests in their larval stage. However, lacewing larvae are voracious eaters and can consume well over 200 aphids per week if the supply is available. Once two to three weeks have passed and the larvae have stuffed themselves with a buffet of common pests, they pupate.
Introduce adult lacewings to your growing operation if you are looking to establish a self-sustaining lacewing population. Unlike larvae, adults only eat pollen, nectar, and honeydew, which is a secretion left behind by aphids. Consuming honeydew usually triggers the release of eggs by a female, as this indicates that the larvae have a viable food source. It’s also important to note that ant colonies love aphid honeydew and will attack green lacewings to protect aphids. If you’re looking to introduce green lacewings to your garden, you’ll need to eliminate any established ant colonies.
Green lacewings are just one of many different types of beneficial insects that improve a garden’s health rather than harming it. ARBICO Organics offers fast, direct shipping of all three lacewing stages from their Arizona headquarters. While there are plenty of great innovations with chemical pesticides, sometimes it’s best to use what nature has already created.
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