April 18th, 2023Glen, about the house…

Get to know your garden’s friends
From the time Peta and I took over the drought-ridden property that became
our home, we were determined to “practise what I preached” in all my writings and
broadcasts – throw away those chemicals and let nature take its course.
The resultant health issues through growing up and working amid a chemical
saturated, family nursery taught me that simple message.
Rachel Carson’s terrifying treatise on the destruction of wildlife through the use of
pesticides, Silent Spring, was the final decider.
In the 15 years since we moved in, we’ve been delighted with the steadily
increasing number and varieties of the avian and predator insect life. Thankfully it has
also coincided with a dramatic decline in sap suckers and leaf chewers.
The bug hotels and other residential attractions and spider-web tolerance are
beginning to pay dividends, it’s now our second year of aphid-free roses and our
birdbaths are in constant demand.
The parrot nesting box has, for the third year, become a weekend retreat for a
ringtail possum, and our slug and snail population is taken care of by Lennie the
neighbourhood shingleback lizard.
So let’s all learn to identify, protect and encourage our resident predator insects to
administer their own form of biological pest control. In some countries people have
to buy them commercially to help keep their gardens and crops pest-free.
Believe it or not, one of the most effective of all predacious insects is that dainty,
little, red-spotted ladybird beetle with a main diet of soft-bodied insects like aphis,
mealybugs, scale and spider mites. Best of all, they begin their feasting while in the
larvae stage and, if times are tough and food supplies are scarce, they’ll turn their
attention onto the larvae of many beetles and weevils.
Next on the list is the praying mantis – that ferocious-looking grasshopper-like
fellow with enormous eyes and two arm-like forelegs which are always ready to grab
anything moving. It is an insectivore and won’t harm any vegetation. But is always
ready to grab anything that flies or moves close by.
They don’t stray very far and stay localised in the same area so if you can gather a
few they will serve you faithfully for a long time. They lay frothy egg cases with 50 or
more eggs in each, several times a year, so can build up numbers quite quickly.
Lacewings, those fragile greenish, large mosquito-like creatures, just love aphis
and similar soft-bodied insects. Their larvae, which some call ant lions, live in the
sand in funnel-like holes and eat any unsuspecting ant or bug that might stumble in.
The hoverfly, pictured, is so named because of their striped abdomen and
formation hovering habits and are quite harmless, mainly thriving on nectar. Their
larvae feed on various larvae.

I am also compelled to mention spiders, because they play a major role as pest
destroyers in the garden. I say ‘compelled’ because I confess to being a practising
arachnophobe due to a somewhat embarrassing and terribly painful encounter (you
guessed it) in my early teens. God bless modern internal plumbing.
I am more than comfortable in having our garden draped with spider webs as
long as they continue to help keep the garden pest-free. I’m also quite comfortable
with Peta naming the occasional huntsman that takes up residence in the house, as
long as they stay away from our bedroom – and the toilet.
Huntsman spiders belong to the international tarantula tribe and are, on the
whole, quite harmless as long they are left alone including, the golden huntsman,
pictured, which prefers the outdoors, finding their food among the bark of large tree.