• 07Sep

    If these eggs aren’t the coolest thing ever, I don’t know. These are green lacewing eggs, and they hang on the little threads to keep them from eating one another when they hatch.

    lacewingeggs.jpg

    Lacewing larvae look like funny little alligators, then turn into pretty green lacewings. The larvae are also called aphid lions, because they devour aphids. I am still amazed that one day, my butterfly weed was just covered in oleander aphids, the next day…gone. The lacewings and ladybugs had an end-of-summer feast.

    Here’s a creepy grasshopper that wouldn’t stop looking at me while I photographed the eggs. I probably should have killed him, but I didn’t have the heart for it.

    grasshopper.jpg

    Am I the only person in the world who now LIKES the aphids? Instead of pests, I’ve begun to view these guys as food for my friends.

    These red aphids moved in as I was taking pictures, and then a few ladybug larvae marched on in and ate them.

    redaphids.jpg

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    Filed under: Organic Gardening
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    Posted: September 7, 2008 at 10:36 am

3 Responses

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  • Pinar Says:

    Great blog! I wish I have seen this photo few hours earlier since I used a homemade spray to get rid of some green aphids (which are herded by the ants). I had also noticed the white hanging aphids but did not know what they were. I am afraid I killed them as well!:(( I know how beneficial the green lacewings are!

  • Juli Says:

    Thank you! I do hope I see those eggs again this year…that was exciting. If you saw one group of eggs, there are probably more, so take heart.

  • Juli Says:

    Hey, Pinar, checked out your blog…is that Turkish?

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