Gardening for Insects. or not

Transcription

1 Gardening for Insects. or not Whitney Cranshaw Colorado State Colorado State University

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3 Garden plantings can affect incidence of. Butterflies Hummingbird moths Miller moths Honey bees Bumble bees Leafcutter bees Lady beetles Flower flies Tachinid flies Lacewings Parasitic wasps Many, many nuisance pests

4 In the beginning there was. Butterfly Gardening

5 Parsleyworm

6 Eggs on dill Young larva

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15 Chrysalid (pupal form) of the parsleyworm

16 The adult form of the parsleyworm is known as

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18 Butterfly Gardening

19 Principles of Butterfly Gardening Provide for food needs of adults Provide for food needs of larvae (caterpillar) Provide some shelter if sites are exposed Avoid use of harmful insecticides id Mud puddling habitat?

20 Foods Used by Butterflies: Nectar, fruit juices, oozing sap.

21 Massed plantings are most often visited it by butterflies

22 Some Annual Plants Commonly Used by Butterflies Zinnia Larkspur Cosmos Sunflowers Asters Sweet pea Verbena

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25 Some Perennial Plants Commonly Used by Butterflies Butterfly Bush Milkweed Sedums Lilac Rabbitbrush Potentilla Thistles Monarda

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27 Foods Used by Butterflies: Nectar, fruit juices, oozing sap.

28 Hackberry butterfly on a dead raccoon.

29 Mud puddling by tiger swallowtail

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31 Foods Used by Caterpillars: Leaves of their host plant

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33 Twotailed Swallowtail Eggs are laid on ash, chokecherry, hoptree

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36 Mourning Cloak Larval host plants are willow, aspen, hackberry and elm

37 Painted Lady Larval host plants are thistles, hollyhock, mallow, occasionally legumes and some other plants

38 The common buckeye (left) develops on snapdragons, toadflax, plantain and other plants The Arizona sister (above) The Arizona sister (above) develops on oak

39 The pygmy blue develops on saltbush, pigweed and some other Chenopodiaceae The dainty sulfur feeds on sneezeweed, Shepard s needle and various low growing Asteraceae

40 Paper wasps feed their young bug burger. Mostly chewed caterpillars.

41 European Paper Wasp A new species in the western US (probably post 2000)

42 Hummingbird Moths

43 Hummingbird Moths A type of sphinx/hawk moth that flies during the day

44 Hornworms Caterpillars of the family Sphingidae

45 Tomato hornworm and tobacco hornworm are notorious garden pests

46 Young Bill Cranshaw, playing with hornworms

47 Bill Still alive, years later

48 Adult stage of the hornworm is known as a sphinx moth or hawk moth

49 Conflict? You like this...but not this.

50 Moth of the tomato hornworm does not fly during the day The whitelined sphinx is a day flying sphinx moth, aka, a hummingbird moth

51 Hummingbird Moths A type of sphinx/hawk moth that flies during the day

52 Colorado has about two dozen kinds of hornworms Utah probably about the same. Most hornworms are not pest insects

53 Whitelined sphinx Hyles lineata The most common hummingbird moth of the western US

54 Plant most visited by hummingbird moths typically have deep sources of nectar that are accessed by their long mouthparts

55 Some plants most often visited by hummingbird moths include: Four o clocks Evening primrose Larkspur Honeysuckle

56 Landscaping for Biological Control Agents

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58 Principles of Gardening for Beneficial i Insects Learn to recognize them and don t kill them Provide for food needs of adults Provide for food needs of immature stages Provide nest sites, if required

59 Lady beetles ( Lady bugs, Lady birds.)

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67 Lady beetle larvae

68 Full-grown larvae settle and attach, shed their skin, and transform to the pupal stage

69 Lady Beetle Pupae

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71 Lady beetle adults maintain themselves on nectar and pollen

72 Flower (Syrphid) Flies

73 Syrphid egg in aphid colony

74 Flower fly larvae

75 Syrphid flies are excellent mimics of bees and wasps Honey Bees Flower (Syrphid) Flies

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79 Adult flower flies sustain themselves on nectar and pollen

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81 Green lacewing eggs laid in groups. Egg hatch has occurred din the lower picture.

82 Left: Newly hatched green lacewing larva eating aphid Right: Green lacewing larva eating elm scales

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84 Adult green lacewings maintain themselves on nectar and pollen

85 Some parasitic wasps

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87 Aphid parasitoids

88 Aphid mummies aphids killed by a parasitic wasp

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93 Tachinid Flies

94 Female tachinid flies search for appropriate host insects

95 Tachinid fly eggs on caterpillar (above) and stink bug (right)

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97 Tachinid fly adults Tachinid fly adults sustain themselves on nectar and pollen

98 Adults of many predators use flowers (nectar, pollen) for sustenance

99 Small, accessible flowers are most commonly used by natural enemies of garden pest insects

100 Some plants useful for providing food for adult stages of insect predators and parasites Most Apiaceae - (dill, fennel, mooncarrot, etc.) Yarrow Many sedums Spurges Alyssum Basket-of-gold Thyme, several herbs

101 Mooncarrot Seseli gummiferum

102 Conserving and Enhancing Natural Enemies Don t kill them Limit use of broad spectrum insecticides Provide foods that the adults need Often need nectar, pollen Provide foods that the immature stages need Allow there to be some hosts, prey available

103 Provide food for larvae of natural enemies

104 Landscaping and Pollinators

105 Gardening for Honey Bees or Not

106 Honey Bee Apis mellifera

107 Plants not favored by honey bees include: Doubled flower cultivars Flowers with long corollas Many common bedding plants Vinca Verbena Petunias Pansies Geraniums (most)

108 Honey Bee Flowering Plant Evaluation Evaluate the relative use of flowering plants by honey bees (and other bees) in Colorado Identify plants heavily used by honey bees Identify plants not visited/used by honey bees

109 Top Plants Visited by Honey Bees include: Blue mist spirea Cleome (bee plant) Agastache foeniculum Penstemon eatonii Ocimum (basil) Nepeta Aster novae-angliae angliae Sedum spectabile Cotoneaster Allium tangitucum

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111 Honey bee Bumble bee

112 Bumble Bees Bombus species

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114 Bumble Bees Are Buzz Pollinators Some Plants are Dependent on Buzz Pollination

115 Bumble Bee Visited Plants include: Most Penstemons Agastache rupestris Echinacea Echinops Russian sage Hypericum frondosum

116 Wool Carder Bee and Stachys

117 Wool Carder Bee Anthidium manicatum

118 Nests are made in existing cavities. The nest tunnels are lined with plant hairs.

119 Male wool carder bees patrol and defend territories

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121 Shelter Needs for Insects? Example: Hunting Wasps

122 Hunting Wasps Families Sphecidae, Pompilidae

123 Ammophila wasp digging nest (left), carrying caterpillar prey (lower left), at nest entrance with prey (below)

124 Bembix wasp digging while holding horse fly prey

125 Cicada Killer Colorado s largest hunting wasp

126 Pemphredon hunting wasps

127 Pemphredon wasps nest in plant stems and hunt small insects

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129 Condo project for Pemphredon sp. hunting wasps

130 European Paper Wasp A new species in the western US (probably post 2000)

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132 Paper wasp gnawing on weathered board for wood fibers

133 European Paper Wasp Nesting in Metal Building Support

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135 European paper wasps in our clothes line

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137 Nest box for European paper wasp

138 European paper wasp condominium project at Boulder County Fairgrounds

139 European paper wasp nest established on growing sweet corn!

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141 Mud Dauber: A hunting wasp of spiders

142 Black and Yellow Mud Dauber (Scleriphon caementarium) Nest (top left), crab spider prey cache (top right), larva feeding on spider prey (below left) and cocoons of pupae (below right)

143 Cat faced spiders used as prey by a black-and-yellow mud dauber

144 Mud daubers collect mud for nest construction ti

145 Landscaping and Pollinators

146 Leafcutter Bees Family Megachiladae

147 Leafcutter Bee Excavating Rotten Porch Board

148 Leafcutter Bees Nesting in Leafcutter Bees Nesting in Rotten Log in Garden

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151 Leafcutter Bee Damage to Rose, Lilac and Virginia Creeper

152 Leafcutter Bee Carrying Leaf Fragment

153 Leafcutter bee returning with leaf fragment

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157 For nest construction: 3-4 rectangular pieces, crimped for the base Oval pieces along the sides of the cell Near perfect circles used to cap the cell All leaf fragments are All leaf fragments are oriented with the smooth side inwards

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159 Leafcutter bees carry their pollen on the underside of the abdomen

160 Leafcutter bee collecting pollen from dandelion

161 Leafcutter bee working sweet pea flower. Note how the anthers become exposed as the bee pushes the flower while nectaring

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163 Leafcutter bees carry their pollen on the underside of the abdomen

164 Leafcutter bee cells in hollowed stem of a weed

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168 Leafcutter Bee Boards

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170 Alfalfa leafcutter bees for alfalfa seed pollination

171 Traveling alfalfa leafcutter bee operation

172 Street signs on alfalfa leafcutter bee block

173 Mason Bees (Osmia species)

174 Predrilled wood for nesting by the orchard mason bee/ Blue orchard bee

175 Orchard Mason Bee Nest Design Drill holes in wooden blocks ¼ to 3/8-inch Holes should be smooth 3 to 6-inches deep Place nest blocks where it gets morning sun Nesting may begin in March Protect from rain and snow cover

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177 Gardening for Insects. or not Whitney Cranshaw Colorado State Colorado State University

178 Army Cutworm Euxoa auxiliaris Photo courtesy Joseph Berger

179 Cutworms

180 Army cutworm larva

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182 Army cutworm feeding in a winter wheat field. Primary feeding occurs on broadleaf weeds.

183 Pupae are present from March through late May Army cutworm pupa

184 Adult form of the army cutworm the Colorado Miller Moth

185 Miller Moth Term applied to any species of moth that is locally abundant Term refers to the scales on moth wings that dislodge like flour on the smock of a miller

186 Army cutworm moths have variable wing patterning

187 The Annual Migration Move from the Plains to the mountains in May-June Return to the Plains in September and early October

188 Next Task. Follow the flowers and stay cool

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193 Swallows at the intersections? Its Miller Time!

194 Plants Commonly Used as Miller Moth Nectar Sources Lilac, Chokecherry and other Prunus Spirea Cotoneaster Russian olive

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196 Plants Commonly Used as Miller Moth Nectar Sources Lilac, Chokecherry and other Prunus Spirea Cotoneaster Russian olive

197 Plants Commonly Used as Miller Daytime Shelter Areas Densely ygrowing gpines Spruce Dense evergreen deciduous shrubs (e.g., cotoneaster) t