This month I’d like to introduce you to another “good bug” that you really want hanging around in the garden.

You have more that likely seen this little green beauty with golden eyes near the porch light in the evenings or flying around the yard.

  Egg on silken thread                        Alligator-like larva                                              Pupa

The Green Lacewing is the enemy of such nasty plant eating “bad bugs” as aphids, mites, whitefly, mealybugs, and just about any other soft bodied critter eating your plants. The female green lacewing lays her eggs on top of a very thin strand to keep the young from eating each other as they hatch. They will eat just about anything they can get their little jaws on including brothers and sisters. By laying eggs this way, upon hatching, the larva slide down the thread and run away looking for something to eat. After munching up a lot of bad bugs, the larva finds a nice quiet, protected place and spins a silken cocoon, pupates and hatches out as an adult.

While the larva feeds on insects, the adult green lacewing prefers visiting flowers for some pollen to eat and nectar to wash it down with. Be sure to use plants in your garden such as Yarrow, Statice, Cilantro, Carrot, Celery and others where the large flower-head is made up of lots of tiny individual flowers to attract the adults.

The green lacewing is a friend of your garden and a definite “keeper”!