Beneficial insects

[TheFriendlyPlanter]

This year I have a plague of predatory insects and it's all because I didn't spray the aphids! We have a large climbing rose that was infested with aphids which I was going to spray, but then I noticed some lady bug larvae eating the aphids. On closer inspection I found many other types of predators such as tiny parisitic wasps, green lacewings, brown lacewings, big-eyed bugs, hoverfly larvae, pollen beetles, prey mantises and various spiders. I decided to see what happened if I didn't spray and just let nature do it's thing, and now there are no aphids left and I have a plague of beneficial insects patrolling my garden which various small birds are now chasing. Have you ever seen an actual swarm of hoverflies? Try planting something disposable like a rose for the sole purpose of attracting predatory insects and your garden will be glad.

[incognito]

This year I have a plague of predatory insects and it's all because I didn't spray the aphids! We have a large climbing rose that was infested with aphids which I was going to spray, but then I noticed some lady bug larvae eating the aphids. On closer inspection I found many other types of predators such as tiny parisitic wasps, green lacewings, brown lacewings, big-eyed bugs, hoverfly larvae, pollen beetles, prey mantises and various spiders. I decided to see what happened if I didn't spray and just let nature do it's thing, and now there are no aphids left and I have a plague of beneficial insects patrolling my garden which various small birds are now chasing. Have you ever seen an actual swarm of hoverflies? Try planting something disposable like a rose for the sole purpose of attracting predatory insects and your garden will be glad.

welcome to holistic organic gardening!!

edit:- i wouldnt ever call a rose diposable!! h=do urself a favor, buy a mr.lincoln hybrid tea and live with romance and daily mdma -like highs over the flowering period from its divine perfume. roses are romance man!!

another edit- if u are ever passing through orange, check out the vinyards, most are planted with a rose at the end of every row(excuse me for fogetting the teknikal term) this they say is to show the the workers when there are any p&d problems in the vinyard, as roses get EVERY disease just about, and will show up there before the vines, so the workers can take decisive action.

but i think vignons are just romantics at heart!!!

i really want to get into producing rose oils and parfumes.

Edited October 8, 2007 by jono

[Torsten]

the biggest [and unpredictable] problem for vinyards is mildew and other fingal diseases. rose leaves are more sensitive to mildew and many fungi hence their use as 'canaries'.

Sowthistle, some brassicas, and fennel/carrot tops are great for keeping aphids around. Aphids really don't do much damage but maintain a steady food supply for predators.

[TheFriendlyPlanter]

I was just amazed at the population explosion of the predators. In just two weeks all aphids are gone and I have no pest problems on any other plant. I have been working on improving the 'ecology' of the garden. I do grow a few tobacco plants for spot-spraying anything important but I can say that natural predators are much better than sprays in the long term. I also know a nursery that keeps a few canetoads under the benches to deal with moths and grasshoppers and it seems to work well.

[Torsten]

I also know a nursery that keeps a few canetoads under the benches to deal with moths and grasshoppers and it seems to work well.

I hate cane toads because of the damage they do and collect all of them every couple of weeks in summer. Since I have done this we've had a grasshopper plague here. I was hoping that the recovering frog population would eventually take care of it, but it is not looking likely.

Anyone have any ideas for grasshoppers?

[shruman]

Birds love grasshoppers, so u could try atracting more birds they like water baths & shrubs/ small trees but u've probly got enough of them around.

The gov have been spraying a fungus that kills locusts.

[Torsten]

I might train a couple of ducks to stay in the nursery area. they LOVE grasshoppers.

[Monk]

Saw this a while ago, but forgot to respond to your post, Torsten. Anyway, here's some info on Green Guard which is being used to good effect on locusts/grasshoppers down there....

http://www.daff.gov.au/animal-plant-health...arch/biological

Biological control of locusts using the fungus Metarhizium

The Australian Plague Locust Commission also uses a biological control agent (Metarhizium anisopliae variety (var) acridium) to manage populations of Australian plague locust.

Metarhizium is a naturally occurring fungus that is specific to locusts and grasshoppers. That is, it will only infect and kill insects belonging to these groups. The fungus was originally isolated from a dead spur-throated locust (Austracris guttulosa) found in Queensland.

Becker Underwood Inc.® suspend Metarhizium spores (the reproductive stage of the fungus) in oil to form the product known here as Green GuardTM(formerly produced by the Australian biotechnology business Bio-Care Technology Pty Ltd).

Note: the production of Green Guard does not involve the genetic manipulation of the fungus. The fungus is simply cultured en masse (much as other microorganisms are cultured en masse, eg. yeast) so that sufficient quantities of spores can be harvested to deliver commercial quantities of the product. The spores are suspended in oil partially to increase the length of time they can endure prolonged dehydration following application and partially to improve their adherence to locusts.

When Metarhizium spores come in contact with a locust, they germinate, penetrate the cuticle of the insect and grow throughout its body. As they grow, the threads (hyphae) of the fungus take mositure and nutrients from the living insect, thereby eventually killing it. Green Gaurd is sprayed onto bands of locust hoppers (nymphs) and flying adults (swarms) using conventional ground-based (for bands) or aircraft-mounted (for swarms) spray equipment.

Research on Metarhizium began in the early 1990s in both Africa and at CSIRO Entomology in Canberra. Preliminary results were so promising that a joint project involving the Australian Plague Locust Commission, CSIRO Entomology, Queensland Department of Natural Resources, NSW Department of Primary Industries, the Wingless Grasshopper Group and a commercial partner begun in 1997. Between 1997 and 2000 field trials covering areas of several hundred hectares showed that Metarhizium could reduce the numbers of locust hoppers in treated bands by >90 per cent. The nature of the fungus eventually kills the insect with the greatest mortality occurring sometime between 7 to 15 days after treatment (depending upon ambient temperature). This success led to the first operational use of Metarhizium anywhere in the world during 2000-2001 in which over 20,000 hectares of bands and swarms of Australian plague locust were aerial treated.

[devance]

Rosmary is very pleasant plant.

I like it for pork or milk claim chowders.

There are some bugs that transmit various bacteria and viruses..

In cailifornia the prime wine growing region is threated by a tiny insect.

Bites and transmits a deadly root disease .

Alot of Sonoma vineyards now wish they grow rosemary directly around the grape plants.

If they had know that was effective.

Too late now.

But just planting a insect repellant, onions even would drive away the harmful insects.

[XipeTotec]

Anyone have any ideas for grasshoppers?

eat them, they look tasty

[incognito]

geese man! geese are cool! and very personable, and make great watch dogs, i long for a goose.

u know whats gonna happen next ....spider plague!!!!!!!!!!! SPIDER PLAGUUUUUEEEEEE!!!! spider plague at wandjina!!! when the grasshoppers food runs out and they disappear all the huntsmen (and worse) are gonna be lookin for food.

u shouldve bought ur bird eating spider sooner to desensitive urself. Im feelin for u as a past-arachnophobe, as soon as them locust move on u will have a twitchy summer. and those ones there are the worst(spiders), they are like tarantulas on WEIRD roids, they have personality!!!(interesting color patterns and variations to i might add, but im sure i saw one drooling once, when i was planting some brugs)

goodnight.

haww haww haww

kidding. try not to think of this post at night when ur in bed.

Edited November 6, 2007 by jono

[Qhorakuna tantani]

Could you maybe introduce some frogs into the ecosystem? Anywhere you can put some tadpoles, just to help things along a bit?

[gecko]

Guinea fowl are dynamite on grasshoppers (and ticks).

theyre very effective 'watch dogs' around the yard

and taste great as a roast dinner.

[devance]

Ticks and chiggers,

One could buy some property but if everytime ones ventures out they start crawling up the leg.

http://entomology.uark.edu/museum/folk.html

'TICKS AND CHIGGERS

Thomas Nuttall (1786-1859), a native of Yorkshire, England, traveled to the United States in 1808 in search of unknown and undescribed plants in the interior reaches of North America. He eventually became lecturer in natural science and a curator of the Cambridge Botanical Garden of Harvard. In 1819, Nuttall traveled from the mouth of the Arkansas River to Fort Smith, describing his explorations in his Journal of Travels into the Arkansas Territory During the Year1819.

In early April, upon returning from his rambles near Dardanelle, he picked from his skin and clothes more than 50 ticks, “which are here more abundant and troublesome than in any other part of America in which I have yet been.” They may well have been Amblyomma americanum, the lone star tick.

In 1841, Friedrich Gerstäcker found good hunting near the Fourche LaFave River. “Many a night I lay in the mild warm air of the forest. Sweet and refreshing as was the face of nature, all was not repose; mosquitoes and ticks almost drove me to despair. When the fire was once well alight, the mosquitoes were attracted by it, and destroyed themselves by thousands, but the ticks became the more furious. They swarm in the woods about the end of April, and are a dreadful torment to the newcomer. The full-grown ticks, about the size of a small shot, are not the worst, because when they bite they may be caught and killed, but in July, the seed-ticks, smaller than poppy seeds, cover the bushes by millions, and I have often almost lost myself under them. Tobacco smoke is the only safeguard against them, as it kills them at once. The poor cattle are dreadfully tormented by them, particularly when they get into their ears. The first cold drives them away, though a few may be found all through the winter.”

A common method for dealing with ticks at the turn of the twentieth century was to burn the woods, although this brought the mountain folk into conflict with federal forest rangers. The country people thought that there was too much timber, and it interfered with farming and hunting. Other government agents soon appeared who advocated tick control by use of dipping vats for cattle. So government agents were telling the folks not to burn the woods, but get rid of the ticks, and this seemed inconsistent to them because they knew burning was the best way to get rid of the ticks. They also knew that while cattle carried some ticks, deer, rabbits, and other wildlife carried them in far greater numbers (Page 1972).'

It didn't rid of the insects but got rid of old growth trees for timbe, just have small trees.

Apparently the chicken ideal the best from what I researched.

[Torsten]

Saw this a while ago, but forgot to respond to your post, Torsten. Anyway, here's some info on Green Guard which is being used to good effect on locusts/grasshoppers down there....

http://www.daff.gov.au/animal-plant-health...arch/biological

Have tried to source this before, but can't find a retailer. Any ideas?

[Torsten]

geese man! geese are cool!

Geese are vegetarians....

[Monk]

Yeah, I couldn't track down a retailer for Green Guard either, but apparently CSIRO has been using the stuff for locust control. Don't we have some members here that work for CSIRO? Maybe they can help. Here's the manufacture's web site: http://www.beckerunderwood.com/australia/o...Green_Guard™_SC. Maybe you could contact them and see what's up. The make a product called Green Guard SC where the SC stands for spray concentrate, and it's meant for ground spraying. This seems like they have a product for the retail market. Let me know if you figure it out.

[ThunderIdeal]

"it is envisaged that it will become nationally registered and commercially available for use by APLC and landholders on a wider basis by Autumn 2005."

so that info is a bit outdated. i searched pubcris and it appears to be registered, and unscheduled, so there's no reason it can't be sold. i wonder if you've tried the kind of retailer that a farmer would go to, the ones with the extensive range of chemicals and other products. i can think of one in brisbane called Farmcraft, which i'm probably gonna visit soon so i'll ask.

here's a pdf http://www2.dpi.qld.gov.au/extra/asp/infop...?prodcode=55736

by the way it said that SC was suspension concentrate, which may mean that it's quite claggy and clogs up your filters and nozzles, and settles to the bottom of your tank. not a major problem but worth recognising.

[ThunderIdeal]

T what you need to do is ring the australian manufacturer, Becker Underwood, on 02 4340 2246 and see if it's distributed through any outlets near you, or anywhere.