 Green Lace Wings
available at Amazon.com
Tips
Control Ant populations when utilizing
Lacewings. Ants actually farm Aphids and will kill their
predators in much the same way a rancher will kill or chase off
predators
Along the border. Plant Sunflower,
Legumes and Brassicas. These are good places for spring releases
to yield migrations of adult lacewings that will move into later
plantings as well as to keep the ones you already have.
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They're almost microscopic, but lacewings are a terror to
aphids, mites, mealy bugs, leaf-hoppers, trips, moth and
butterfly eggs, and caterpillars.
Adults feed on nectar, pollen, and aphid honeydew, but the
larvae are the active predators. Adult lacewings need
nectar or honeydew as food before egg laying ,they also feed
on pollen and are considered "pollinators" another essential
requirement for gardening.
The larvae are are best known as Aphid Lions. , and will eat
between 100 and 600 aphids each. They also feed on Thrips,
spider mites, whitefly, mealy bugs, and the eggs of most
moth and caterpillar species.
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Populations of Green Lacewings have been recorded as
important aphid predators in potatoes,
In
small scale experiments outside the United States, lacewings
achieved various levels of control of aphids on pepper,
potato, tomato, and eggplant, and have been used against
Colorado potato beetle on
both potato and eggplant.
On
corn, peas, cabbage, and apples, a degree of aphid control
was obtained with large numbers of lacewings.
Brown lacewings are somewhat smaller than their green
cousins. They are also predatory, and are more common in
low-growing vegetation than in trees. They have not
proven to be as effective as the Green Lacewings and are not
readily available.
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