UCR "Bug Ladies" visit the RCC Community Garden

Two weeks ago Thursday, April 24th, we were lucky enough to have two vary knowledgeable UCR Entomology graduate students come to our (RCC's), community garden. They came to educate us on a method of pest control that can effectively control pest in our gardens without the use of potentially harmful chemicals. That method is to use the natural enemies of the harmful pest. Here is a chart I got off the UC Davis website at http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74140.html. This an example of what the grad students where talking about.

PESTS	NATURAL ENEMIES
	Lacewings	Lady beetles	Parasitic flies	Parasitic wasps	Predatory mites	Other groups and examples
aphids	•	•		•		entomopathogenic fungi syrphid fly larvae
carpenterworm, clearwing moth larvae				•		entomopathogenic nematodes
caterpillars (e.g., California oakworm)	•		•	•		Bacillus thuringiensis birds pathogenic fungi and viruses predaceous wasps Trichogramma spp.(egg parasitic wasps) spiders
cottony cushion scale		•	•			Cryptochaetum iceryae (parasitic fly) vedalia beetle
elm leaf beetle			•	•		Erynniopsis antennata (parasitic fly) Oomyzus (=Tetrastichus) spp. (parasitic wasps)
eucalyptus longhorned borers				•		Avetianella longoi (egg parasitic wasp) Syngaster lepidus (larval parasitic wasp)
eucalyptus redgum lerp psyllid		•		•		Psyllaephagus bliteus (parasitic wasp)
giant whitefly	•	•		•	•	Entedononecremnus krauteri, Encarsiella noyesii, and Idioporus affinis (parasitic wasp)
glassy-winged sharpshooter				•		Gonatocerus spp. (egg parasitic wasps)
lace bugs	•	•		•		pirate bugs spiders
mealybugs	•	•		•	•	mealybug destroyer lady beetle
mosquitoes						Bacillus thuringiensis ssp. israelensis
psyllids	•	•		•		pirate bugs
scales	•	•		•	•	Aphytis spp. (armored scale parasites)
slugs, snails			•			Rumina decollata (predatory snail) predaceous ground beetles vertebrates
spider mites	•	•			•	sixspotted thrips Stethorus picipes (spider mite destroyer lady beetle)
thrips	•				•	predatory thrips
weevils, root or soil-dwelling						Steinernema carpocapsae and Heterorhabditis bacteriophora (entomopathogenic nematodes)

 One way we can promote a diverse insect population in our gardens is to have a garden that is biologically diverse in the types of fruits and vegetables we grow.  The other way to have beneficial insects is to by and release them in your garden. Releasing the correct predator insect requires that you identify the enemy in your garden then looking up its natural predictor on the chart above.

The other thing these grad students did is bring some live and preserved insect specimens from around the world. Here are some pictures.