Re: insect guide?
- To: perennials@mallorn.com
- Subject: Re: insect guide?
- From: m* l*
- Date: Sun, 15 Aug 1999 11:04:22 -0600
At 07:58 AM 8/15/99 -0700, you wrote:
>Slightly OT, but I've seen insects in the garden this year that are
>completely new & strange to me. Have actually seen less plant damage
>than usual so I'm assuming that these are beneficial or at least
>benign critters and would like to try to identify them. What are the
>best resources you've used for insect ID (for the Midwest)? Some of
>the ones I've seen include:
>
>-- a gorgeous large bronze-gold ground beetle, an inch long and almost
>as broad, slow-moving
>-- a flying insect that looked waspy but without a waist, 4 pairs of
>wings, actually could hear a hum from the wings, hovered in one place
>like a helicopter, darted like a dragonfly, but not one
>-- a green almost transparent dainty creature about 3/4 of an inch long,
>enchanted with certain daylilies
>-- a half-dozen unknowns going crazy over the calamintha flowers. Aside
>from bumble bees and what I think are what we called bluebottles, lots
>of mid, small, & tiny nectar-lovers
>
>... and so on. I love the way these creatures are attracted to gardens -
>thank goodness for my Dad, who taught me to be intrigued by insects
>instead of afraid of them. They certainly add to the feeling of life in
>the gardens.
>
>Anne - Chicago
>
Anne, the best resource I've found is "Natural Enemies of Vegetable Insect
Pests," by Michael P. Hoffman and Anne C. Frodsham (at least she knows how
to spell Anne, doesn't she? <VBG>) It's a large paperback reference,
available from Cornell University (the publisher) for about $14, as I
recall. Contact Resource Center, 7 Business/Technology park,Cornell
University, Ithaca, NY 14850. You'll fall in love with the "cover girl,"
Trichopoda pennipes, a natural enemy of squash bugs. Would that there were
more of them in my yard. Margaret L
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