Juli Lawrence – Rakish Gardening

September 1st, 2008

The spined soldier bug is one of the most coveted beneficial insects in the garden, preying on over 100 kinds of insects. I’ve now tragically discovered they also like my younger monarch caterpillars. Fortunately, other monarchs survived and they’ve all left now to become butterflies. I always miss them when they leave.

Any time you read about beneficial insects, the spined soldier bug is at the top of the list. You can buy eggs for about a hundred dollars. That’s a little more than I’m willing to spend on 250 eggs.

One plant that is said to attract them: goldenrod. In fact, some people actually go to meadows in the fall to try and find one of these bugs on a goldenrod, then take it back to their gardens. Some people even take them inside and raise them.

Soldier bug nursery

So last year I bought and planted a goldenrod. It’s in a different garden, so I don’t know if it had anything to do with my soldier bug. I had been seeing a stink bug, and spined soldier bugs look like your plain old stink bug. I cannot tell them apart. I made the decision to leave that stink bug in case it might be a soldier bug, because one stink bug isn’t going to cause much plant damage. (Part of my philosophy is to not worry about bad bugs as long as there are just a few. The exception would be bugs that transmit disease, particularly my nemesis the cucumber beetle.)

That stink bug did turn out to be the spined soldier bug, so I made the right decision.

Despite what I like to call “The Monarch Murder,” I’d like him to stick around and make himself at home.

• Organic gardening – the overview
• 2007 Garden Wrap-Up
• Ladybug eating the oleander aphids
• Companion Planting for beneficials – homage to Sally Jean Cunningham part 2
• The Monarch Murder

Tags: beneficial insects
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