From: sasjwm@zymurgy.unx.sas.com (Jim McKenzie)
Subject: Re: Good Flowers for Good Bugs
Date: Thu, 7 May 1992 17:58:54 GMT

I have read the following information about "flower power."  I
can only verify that Yarrow does attract Ladybugs.  Can anyone
else verify the benefits of the other flowers?

These                  attract these         which eat these
Flowers                Good Bugs             Bad Bugs
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Evening Primrose       Ground Beetle         Cankerworms, snails, slugs,
                                             moths, maggots, houseflies
                                             gnats, aphids, ants, termites

Wild Buckwheat         Tachinid Fly          Caterpillars, adult beetles,
                                             gypsy moths, grasshoppers

Baby Blue Eyes         Syrphid Fly           Aphids, thrips, leafhoppers,
Candy Tuft                                   mealybugs

Bishops Flower         various  insects      Cutworms, mealbugs, aphids,
Black-eye Susan                              scale insects, beetle larvae,
Strawflowers                                 gypsy moths, caterpillars
Nasturtiums

Angelica               Green Lace Wings      Aphids, caterpillars eggs,
                                             mites, mealybugs, thrips,
                                             whiteflies

Yarrow                 Ladybugs              Aphids, mealybugs, chinch bugs,
===

From: aok@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Ann Kamman)
Date: 7 May 92 19:54:32 GMT

Here are some examples from the charts in the Garbage magazine I
recently told you about:

                Good Flowers for Good Bugs

ALYSSUM.  attracts tachinids, syrphids, chalcids.  Note: research underway in
Calif with rows of alyssum between rows of lettuce to build up
pupulations of aphid-predators.

ANGELICA.  attracts ladybugs, lacewings, potter, mud-dauber, sandwasps.
Note: cut back flowers before seed matures.  Cut foliage to ground in fall.
Likes fertile soil.

MORNING GLORY.  attracts syrphid flies, ladybugs.  Note: invasive.

WHITE CLOVER.  attracts parasitic wasps of aphids, scales, and
whiteflies.  Note: excellent nitrogen fixer.  Start seed in warmth of
summer.  Good as a lawn substitute, except it attracts honey bees.

WILD LETTUCE.  attracts soldier beetles, lacewings, earwigs, syrphid
flies.  Note: wild relative of our cultivated lettuces.  Prefers
fertile soil, easy to control.

YARROW.  attracts ladybugs; parasitic wasps of aphids, scales, and whiteflies.
Note: very drought resistant, comes in many hot and pastel colors of bloom.

                Predators and Parasites

SYRPHID FLIES.  Prey on aphids, leafhoppers, mealy-bugs.  Most hungry
in larval stage.

LACEWINGS.  Prey on aphids, scale, whiteflies, mites, other lacewings,
mealybugs, and the eggs of mites, thrips, and other insects.  Most
hungry in larval stage.

PRAYING MANTIDS [sic].  Eat any insect they catch, including
beneficial ones.  Most hungry in adult, nymph stages.

DRAGONFLIES.  Eat small flying insects, including midges and
mosquitoes.  Most hungry when adult.

SOLDIER BEETLES.  Feed on cutworms, gypsy moth larvae, cankerworms,
snails, and slugs.  Most hungry as adult.

_________
Another fascinating paragraph:  "Consider the ladybug.  We all know
and love the adult ladybug with its red-and-black spotted dome.  This
beneficial insect is commonly sold as a useful predator of aphids and
mealybugs, pests which rob the plant of sap and damage the foliage.
But the gardener's best friend is really the ladybug larva.  This
spiny, orange-black creature is so ugly that most people, assuming
it's a pest, destroy an important compatriot.  Ladybug larvae are some
of the most ravenous and effective aphid-eating creatures Nature has
devised.  They greedily gobble young aphids, called nymphs, as well as
adult aphids."

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