Sasha CampbellGreen lacewings are a highly effective natural aid in controlling many garden pests.
Below are some tips for understanding the benefits of having them in the garden, their role, and how to attract them.
Identification
Belonging to the order Neuroptera, green lacewings are attractive insects of the family Chrysopidae [1].
They play a key role in any integrated pest management (IPM) system. They are some of the best natural predators of garden pests.
These delicate creatures have four clear wings. The wings are veined in bright green or sometimes brown. Also, they possess long antennae and copper-golden eyes.
Green lacewing eggs are tiny, pale green, and oval-shaped. However, they turn gray just before hatching.
The image below shows what the eggs look like.
Life Cycle
These insects that eat other insects have an unusual and very recognizable way of depositing their eggs. The eggs appear as light-colored, elongated shapes attached to a fine thread that hangs beneath plant leaves.
They hatch in just a few days as tiny, alligator-shaped larvae with pincers. These larvae feed continuously for 2-3 weeks, shedding their skins several times during that time.
After this time, the larvae begin spinning a fine cocoon for the pupal phase before finally emerging as adults.
Green lacewing larvae require a lot of energy during this process. As a result, they need to devour large quantities of food.
They are ready with sharp pincers to capture and pierce their prey, especially their favorite meal: aphids. For this reason, they are often referred to as ‘aphid lions’ [2].
Green Lacewing Garden Benefits
Lacewing flies are a great boon to organic gardening. In their larval phase, they are highly effective at controlling some destructive pests.
The hungry larvae attack soft-bodied pests using their hooked pincers for the whole process. First, they pierce the pest and skewer it; then, they inject digestive enzymes to paralyze the prey.
Finally, the larvae will suck out the juices and, using their pincers like straws, draw out the fluid, finishing off the pest. This unpleasant process takes only a minute or so to complete, allowing the larvae to reach around 200 aphids per week.
Garden pests on their diet sheet include:
- Mealybugs
- Woolly aphids and other aphids
- Whiteflies
- Leafhopper nymphs
- Mites
- Thrips
- Scale insects
- Caterpillars
- Moth eggs
- Psyllids
- Cabbage worms
Adult green lacewings are also beneficial as pollinators, feeding on plant pollen, nectar, and honeydew. By feeding on the honeydew and pollen of plants, they help to pollinate other plants.
How to Attract Green Lacewings to Your Garden
Certain organic practices can help promote and sustain a healthy lacewing population in your vegetable garden.
1. Keep Some Bad Insects
It seems hard to encourage a gardener to resist eliminating all pests. But allowing some to survive will attract beneficial insects to the garden.
The sticky, sugary honeydew left by harmful insects, such as aphids, serves as food for pollinators. These pollinators include ladybugs, butterflies, bees, and lacewing moths.
A ready supply of pests like aphids is a bit like a fast-food store for beneficial insects. Female lacewings will be happy to deposit hundreds of eggs in this helpful environment.
2. Sugary Spray
To attract helpful insects like lacewings, you can spray plants with a sugar-and-water solution. Focus on areas where aphids and other pests are colonizing.
This sweet solution will increase the amount of honeydew on the plants, repel pests, and bring in squadrons of lacewing bugs to feed and mate.
An army of larvae will follow, destroying most of the pests.
3. Plants That Attract Beneficial Insects
Many flowering plants and herbs will attract these useful insects to your vegetable garden.
Plants that attract lacewings include angelica, caraway, tansy, fern-leaf yarrow, cosmos, and poppy mallow. These green-winged insects also favor herbs such as dill, fennel, and coriander.
4. Limit the Use of Pesticides
There are several natural organic insecticides, like neem oil and diatomaceous earth, that you can use to control garden pests.
If used correctly, these will not harm or deter beneficial insects. However, chemical pesticides can destroy all insect life, including pollinators and predators.
As a result, it’s best to avoid using insecticides, as they can harm beneficial insects.
Buy Them Commercially
Many beneficial insects are reared today for organic gardening and farming. You will find them for sale online or in garden centers.
Lacewings are available in three main life-cycle stages.
- The eggs can be distributed throughout the garden and in the greenhouse in batches over a season in mild, warm conditions.
- The larvae are effective at quickly dealing with pest infestations. These are available for fast applications in gardens or greenhouses.
- Adults (Chrysoperla rufilabris) can also be ordered; they are usually ready to produce eggs but may have limited use as pollinators.
Once established, these additions can be promoted and maintained to manage pest infestations in the long run.
Takeaway
This little green bug with wings (lacewing) is a deceptive insect.
It seems to be a fragile, moth-like creature that is attracted to porch lights on warm evenings. Its lucent wings and golden eyes offer a delightful sight.
In reality, they are hardier than they seem, and in their larval phase, they are serious destroyers of harmful insects.
They have an unusual ‘ear’ feature that allows them to detect the ultrasound echolocation signals of predatory bats. Detecting danger, an adult will fold up its wings and flop down still on the ground to minimize the chance of being an evening meal.
Rarely seen flying about in the daytime, lacewing bugs are a pleasure to observe at night. Besides, they are welcome visitors to organic gardeners at all times.
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