I'm reposting this short article in homage to the little Praying Mantis found last week on the chives here. The more one gardens, the more one can start to appreciate some of the insects that come and visit the garden. Of course, you need the bumble bees, honeybees, hornets, flies, etc. for pollinating many plants. But did you know the following varieties of insect are actually good for your garden and can help keep the bad guys away?

Beneficial insects include:
Ladybugs - eat mealy bugs, aphids, scale bugs, thrips, etc.
Praying Mantis - eat just about any other bug, so you don't want too many
Lacewing Larvae - they will rid the plants of aphids
Assassin Bug - will eat beetles, caterpillars
Hover Flies Larvae - also called Syrphid Flies are striped like bees. The larvae love aphids
Ground Beetle Larvae - live in soil and dine on cutworms, slugs, root maggots. The adults often look metallic.
Predatory Stink Bugs - eat grubs, caterpillars, larvae. Some types of stink bugs are pests.
Damsel Bug - like a smaller Assassin Bug, they eat aphids, caterpillars, leaf hoppers, thrips
Minute Pirate Bugs - really small black bugs with white "v" on their backs. They eat aphids, mites, thrips, etc.
You can check out http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/graphics/photos/insectsimages.new.htm or
http://www.insectimages.org/ to identify these insects.

Plants are off to a slow start but finally getting growing. What's not so great is that I see hardly any bees. We have carpenter bees, yellow jackets and wasps but seeing almost no honeybees here. This year planted zebra tomato (yellow and green striped), Roma tomato (red sauce tomato), Napa Baby Cabbage, Peas (which are going pretty good), Salad Slicer Cucumbers, 3 types of Basil, Chives (regular and Garlic), radishes, Nasturtiums (good in salads), Dwarf Bartlett Pears and a few Blackberries.

Except for the groundhog eating of the tops of the sunflower it's a beautiful day. The squirrels here are doing their usual decorating and disruption. Some neighbors leave them bread. The squirrels then dig up my seedlings to "hide" it in the soil for later. Pictured below is a solution I have come up with (at least for the fence boxes). They are plastic grids that backed filters for the furnace and are secured by string... well necessity is the mother of invention... It works for now.

Plants with me are "lifers". This clematis is a joy to behold every spring and is 20 years old!.