Garden Pests and Diseases: Friend or Foe #2, 1 by Night_Bloom

Night_Bloom wrote:
stephpaige - I'm glad you found something that looks like your galls. It is amazing the many, many different kinds, and that each gall insect can cause something that looks different. Many of the galls are so distinctive that they can be used to identify the species.

shuggins - I'm glad that you found your lady beetle. Sorry I wasn't here to let you know that's what it was. There are so many different kinds of lady beetles, and as you found, some aren't even the typical round shape. Others have no spots at all, while others are black. Some are even very small - like a large flea beetle. I definitely need to get photographs of more kinds of lady beeteles, but they aren't easy to photograph. This is because 1) they are shiny and that's not easy to compensate for, 2) they are humped, so it's hard to get them entirely in focus and still be close enough to see eyes, feet and other characters (which they often like to keep close to their body), and 3) they like to move around a lot, especially while you are trying to photograph them.

margu - I'll be interetsed to see your bee. You've got me curious now. Our carpenter bees aren't small - I'd say that they are at least an inch long in our area, but they don't really look very "round" in shape.

TamaraFaye - It sounds like your lady beetles are doing a fine job. I'd leave them to it. If they can't find enough to eat and get hungry, they can always fly to somewhere new to try again. As for flies that eat aphids, I posted one example already - that little, shiny green fly on the first thread. It was a Dolichopodidae, a long-legged fly.

Here is another... It is in the family Syrphidae. Theses are commonly called hover flies, because they often hover over flowers. Hover flies come in many different sizes. Many of the smaller ones have larvae that feed on aphids. Some of the larger ones have larvae that feed on organic matter. Since they visit flowers, they presumably could do some pollination as adults. Most adult flies resemble bees or wasps in some way. Some are even fuzzy like bees (a trait also used by some robber flies - example of a non-bee like robber fly, eating a moth, is on the first thread.)

Here's one of the small hover flies.