Abby Seaman, Bryan Brown, and Marcus Lopez
One of the questions we’re trying to tackle in this trial is whether our treatments affect the type and number of beneficial insects and other arthropods. So: when we’re out scouting for pests, we’re also recording any beneficials we see.
We had a lot of squash bug in the trial, and are seeing a couple of beneficial insects that use squash bug as a host. One, Trichopoda pennipes, is a fly in the family Tachinidae that lays its eggs on the surface of adults and nymphs. The eggs hatch and the fly larvae feed inside the squash bug, eventually killing it. We’ve seen plenty of adult flies, with their distinctive orange abdomens, as well as eggs deposited on adults and nymphs. Learn more about Trichopoda pennipes here.
Adult Trichopoda pennipes parasitoid
An egg of the parasitoid Trichopoda pennipes on an adult squash bug. Photo by Erik Verdehem.
Another beneficial that appears to be feeding on the nymphs is lacewing larvae. Lacewings are ferocious little predators that will wrestle down and eat almost any soft-bodied insect smaller than them. Surprisingly, most of the lacewing larvae I’ve found have been brown lacewings. I’ve also found green lacewing eggs and larvae, but not as many. Learn more about brown lacewings here.
Brown lacewing larva and aphids. Copyright © 2012 MJ Hatfield. Licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Other beneficials we see pretty regularly are damsel bugs, lady beetle adults and larvae, and Orius adults and nymphs. The lady beetles and Orius are becoming more common as aphid numbers have started to increase late in the season.