What's that little green bug on the head of the Gaillardia?

It's soft-bodied. It's miniscule. It's sucking plant juices.

An aphid!

We captured an image of this little green bugger shortly after we purchased several plants from an area nursery. It's a good idea to check your plants for aphids and other critters before you buy them or transplant them in your garden.

Gaillardia is a hearty plant, but it's troubled by aster yellows, a viruslike disease transmitted by those nasty aphids and leafhoppers.

A green aphid may look pretty on a reddish flower, but it is not your friend. It sucks plant juices, transmits diseases, and produces as many as 80 offspring within a week. Then there's that sticky, unsightly honeydew it secretes--and which ants tend. 

California alone has more than 450 species of aphids, and they come in some of your favorite colors, including green, yellow, red, brown and black.

Favorite colors, but that's it. Nobody likes 'em...'cept for ladybugs, lacewings and syrphid flies...

"Chantilly lace, have a pretty face..."

When Jerry Lee Lewis belted out those lyrics in his No. 1 hit, "Chantilly Lace," back in 1972, he wasn't thinking of a green lacewing.

Perhaps he should have been.

The green lacewing is a delicate insect with transparent wings, an elongated green body, and gold or copper-colored eyes. When the late afternoon sun sets it aglow, you can't find a more beautiful insect.

It's not only pretty--it's beneficial. Its larvae, sometimes called "aphid lions," prey upon aphids, mites, mealybugs, whiteflies, leafhoppers, psyllids, tiny caterpillars and insect eggs. And sometimes they devour each other.

As adults, lacewings feed on pollen, nectar and honeydew.

Entomologists place the insect in the family Chrysopidae, suborder Planipennia, order Neuroptera and class Insecta.

Gardeners? If they had their way, they'd place the green lacewing on a pedestal.

Mother's Day, insect-style, dawned like any other day. In our back yard, golden honey bees foraged in the lavender and those ever-so-tiny sweat bees visited the rock purslane.

The honey bees? Those gorgeous Italians.

The sweat bees? Genus Lasioglossum, as identified by native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis. He figures the female sweat bee (below) may be L. mellipes, which is brownish toward the tips of the hind legs.

A trip to Benicia yielded a photo of a ladybug chasing aphids. It was almost comical. A fat aphid appeared to be playing "King of the Hill" while other aphids sucked contentedly on plant juices, unaware of pending predators.

While the aphids wreaked havoc on a very stressed Escallonia (fast-growing hedge in the family Escalloniaceae), the ladybugs, aka lady beetles, wreaked havoc on some very stressed aphids.

After all,  "stressed" spelled backwards is "desserts."

"You can never be too rich, too young, too blonde or too thin," a quote often attributed to Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor.

Well, you can never have too many ladybugs, aka lady beetles, in your garden.

These colorful beetles devour aphids and other soft-bodied insects. It's a war of the predators and their prey.

Fortunately, when there are scores of aphids sucking the very lifeblood out of your plants, you're likely to see both ladybugs AND soldier beetles. Both like to dine on aphids.

Soon the ladybugs and soldier beetles do what comes naturally. (Unfortunately, so do the aphids.)

More ladybugs, please! More soldier beetles, too!