And this is one of them. I was busy conducting war with the aphids which were multiplying by the kazillions when I noticed these metallic, green flies on some of my plants. I grabbed the camera and shot a picture and then plowed through my bug books and the web to find out what they were. I found pictures of them but not the name so I sent an e-mail to my master gardener mentor and she identified them. They are Dolichopodidae or long legged fly and they are a beneficial insect in the garden feeding on mites, thrips and aphids among other arthropods. This is one good reason why not to use chemicals in the garden, they kill the beneficials along with the undesirable bugs. Mom
Indeed!
ReplyDeleteI'm stuck with spider mites on a 30 ft. tree that I'm not sure how to treat at the moment. Washing the leaves individually with soapy water as recommended may not work on this scale, any ideas?
Spider mites like dry, droughty conditions and usually increasing the humidity is a good means of control...which means shooting a stream of water up that 30 ft. tree periodically. See if that takes care of them.
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