Beneficial Insects and How to Attract Them: Fireflies
Karen Also known as lightening bugs, fireflies , are actually beetles belonging to the Lampyridae family of insects. There are over two thousand species, about one hundred fifty of which live…
Beneficial Insects and How to Attract Them: Ground Beetles
Ground beetles are members of the Carabidae family of insect with about forty thousand species worldwide, two thousand of which live in North America. They are variable in size and…
Beneficial Insects and How to Attract Them: Soldier Beetle
Soldier beetles belong to the Cantharidae family of insects with about four hundred seventy species in North America. They are also known as leatherwings because of their tough wing covers…
Beneficial Insects and How to Attract Them: Big-Eyed Bugs (Geocordiae spp.)
There are over twenty five species of bug-eyed bugs in North America some of which live coast to coast in the US. They are tiny but very abundant and considered…
Beneficial Insects and How to Attract Them: Rove Beetle
Rove beetles belong to the family Staphylinidae, one of the largest family of beetles, with over sixty thousand species worldwide and over three thousand species in North America. Since there…
Beneficial Insects and How to Attract Them: Robber Flies
Also called assassin flies, these true flies belong to the Asilidae family. There are over seven thousand different species in the family, with over one thousand in North American where…
Beneficial Arachnida and How to Attract Them: Wolf Spiders
If you have seen a large, hairy spider with long legs in your garden it might be a wolf spider. Actually wolf spider refers to a family of spiders and…
Pest Control: Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), Beneficial Bacterium
One of the tools available to the organic farmer is Bacillus thuringiensis, commonly known as Bt. It is a naturally occurring bacterium that produces a protein that is toxic to…
Beneficial Insects: Yellow Jackets
If you have ever been chased and stung by a yellow jacket you must be surprised that the title of this post suggests that they are good insects. The truth…
Beneficial Insects and How to Attract Them: Trichogramma Wasps
Found throughout the world, the 800 species of Trichoigramma feed on the insect eggs especially moths and butterflies. Several species feed on the eggs of over 200 different garden pests,…