Back in July I posted this picture of a little creature on my fennel, hoping for an ID.
I was concerned it was a pest of some sort on my brand new veggie and herb seedlings, but I didn’t kill it. But I found a few more over the summer, and I admit that a couple might not have survived my panicky pest control moments (especially when my cantaloupe was under attack by aphids). Well, today I found out what they are — the rag mop larval stage of a kind of lady beetle, the mealybug destroyer (Cryptolaemus montrouzieri). Good guys!
I am so sorry, little larvae, those that I led to a premature demise. It will never, ever happen again, and I promise to watch out for all your cousins from now on!
It’s interesting how the little lady beetle larvae resemble one of their favorite meals, the mealybug, but they also are great devourers of aphids and scale insects, the aphids being what they probably feasted on in my yard. Before… cry.
AwwW! Don’t feel bad. It happens. This is how we gardeners learn!
It’s nice to ID the “nice guys” once in a while. 🙂
Meredith,
It is nice to know the good bugs from the bad bugs. I knew a woman that sold plants at the farmers market and the butterflyweed she was selling would sell quickly if she showed the customer the Monarch caterpillars them. Then she found out the help at her nursery was pinching off all the caterpillars on the butterflyweed plants.
Huh.., there are friendly insects everywhere… and not all are nasty. ~bangchik
We live and learn, Meredith. Now you have educated us, too.
Yep Meredith, these things happen. Great you took a photo at the time. Funnily enough I have just posted a series of photos from July today… no bugs that I saw though.
Great you discovered what yours was, fascinating that these good guys disguise themselves too. Wishing you a great weekend 😀
the little cryptobug took one for the cause. They’ll understand. They know you’re one of the good ones.
Thanks for the heads up on this little guy. It makes me wonder if I have mistakenly killed some of these guys. I will certainly look more closely next time I see something like this. Will we have any insects left after all this freezing weather?
Drat. I totally thought they were an invasive pest and roughly removed them from several plants. I don’t know if they survived the transfer to a part of my yard I’m less concerned with.
Great tip. I guess I should have put more legwork into identifying first, removing second. But they just looked so … pest like. Appearances. I should know better. 🙂