Controlling Insects with other Insects
A big mistake that many people make around the home and garden is to assume that all “bugs” are the same. The big problem that arises from this assumption is that the use of chemical sprays or other toxins will rid your world of insect pests and leave you happily tending to your household duties. In fact, using these sprays will eventually mean that your house becomes unlivable and your garden untenable.A huge problem with toxic chemical treatments, particularly in the garden, is that they kill all bugs without prejudice, beneficial and harmful alike. In many cases, the pest populations can rebound, but the predator populations don’t, so you end up in a vicious cycle which results in the pests winning when your soil become to contaminated to be healthy.
One great way to fight insect pests in your garden and in the home is to encourage their natural predators to control their numbers. Sometimes this will occur naturally, but in case you have a hard time finding insect predators in your garden, many pest control companies and garden stores have populations for sale for the purpose.
What kinds of insects are you looking for?
Using insects to control other insects can mean identifying a predator for a specific pest, or using an all purpose bug to do the job for you. One of the best all purpose bugs (although technically neither a bug nor an insect) is the spider. Spiders are voracious insect predators; they will eat virtually any insect that is thought of as a pest. They can be used effectively in both the home and in the garden. The only problem with spiders (aside from the fact that many people are just plain creeped out by them) is that they require webs which may look untidy. Most house spiders don’t rely on webs to catch their prey, however, and are fairly unobtrusive guests.
Another great anti-insect pest insect is the lady bug (or more properly the lady beetle). Both the adult beetle and their larvae are great at keeping aphid populations in particular under control.
Praying mantises are even more effective insect predators than lady bugs, because they prey on as wide a range of pest insects as spiders. They are downright deadly and can be transplanted naturally from other areas to your home or garden or else bought from a store.
Lacewings and braconids (a small wasp) are flying insect predators. They both attack the insect pests when they are in larval form, the braconids laying their eggs right on pests such as the tomato hornworm.
Trichogamma are tiny insects which can be purchased through a pest control company or in a garden store which attack pest insects in the egg stage. These little insects are particularly effective in fighting off species of caterpillar.
Remember, the insect world is just as varied as the vertebrate world, with little wars of survival going on all the time. There’s no need to spray your garden for ants or your house for flies when all you need to do is find the insect equivalent of a lion or tiger to take care of the problem for you. Who knows, you might even become fascinated enough to watch some of the small dramas play out!
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