- Author: Lauren Fordyce
There are many types of “good bugs” commonly found in the garden or landscape. In integrated pest management (IPM) we refer to “good bugs” as “natural enemies” or “beneficial organisms”. Natural enemies can include insects, but also mites, pathogens, and vertebrates like birds and lizards. They can kill or reduce pest populations by feeding directly on the pest, parasitizing the pest, or infecting the pest with a pathogen, reducing the need for pesticides.
Keep an eye out for the common natural enemies listed below and learn to recognize their egg and immature stages too!
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
![Adult syrphid fly. [J.K.Clark]](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/UCIPMurbanpests/blogfiles/32516small.jpg)
Will all the pollinators please stand up!
Or do a fly-by like the Blue Angels or a crawl-by like babies competing in a diaper derby.
Bees--there are more than 4000 of them in North America--are the main pollinators, but don't overlook butterflies, beetles, birds, bats and moths.
And flies.
Flies?
Yes, flies.
Hover flies, aka flower flies or syrphid flies, belong to the family Syrphidae. Scientists estimate that worldwide, there are about 6000 described species in 200 genera. As their name implies, hover flies "hover," sort of like a helicopter preparing to...
June 15-21 is National Pollinator Week, a time to highlight the crucial role that pollinators play in producing food for our nation. Something you may not know about pollinators is that many of them, including beetles, flies, and wasps, are also beneficial natural enemies of many garden and landscape pests!
A good example of a pollinator that is also a natural enemy is the syrphid fly, also known as the flower or hover fly. Syrphid fly larvae prey on aphids and other soft-bodied insects, potentially consuming hundreds of these pests in one month! As adults, syrphid flies move from flower to flower feeding on pollen and nectar, assisting the process of...
