What is a Praying Mantid?

Mantidae

Mantidae is the largest family of the order Mantodea, commonly known as praying mantises; most are tropical or subtropical. Historically, this was the only family in the order, and many references still use the term "mantid" to refer to any mantis. Technically, however, "mantid" refers only to members of the Mantidae family, and not the 14 remaining families of mantises. Some of the most recent classifications have promoted a number of the mantid subfamilies to the rank of family, e.g. Iridopterygidae, Sibyllidae, Tarachodidae, Thespidae, and Toxoderidae,[1] while other classifications have reduced the number of subfamilies without elevating to higher rank. Many species are found in North America, the three most common being the European Mantis (Mantis religiosa), the Chinese Mantis (Tenodera sinensis), and the Carolina Mantis (Stagmomantis carolina). Of these, only the last is native to the continent - the European and Chinese species were introduced in the 20th century as predators in an attempt to control pest populations in gardens.

Treatment

This is a beneficial insect. Do not treat!

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What is an assassin bug?

Reduviidae

Reduviidae (from the contained genus, Reduvius, which comes from the Latin reduvia, meaning "hangnail" or "remnant") is a large, cosmopolitan family of predatory insects in the suborder Heteroptera. It includes assassin bugs (genera include Melanolestes, Platymeris, Pselliopus, Rasahus, Reduvius, Rhiginia, Sinea, Triatoma, and Zelus), ambush bugs (subfamily Phymatinae), wheel bugs (Arilus cristatus), and thread-legged bugs (the subfamily Emesinae, including the genus Emesaya). There are about 7000 species altogether, making it one of the largest families in the Hemiptera.

Treatment

This is a beneficial insect. DO NOT TREAT!

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Your Home Vegetable Garden, A Great Entomology Course

I am sure at some point in your life you had, even for a brief moment, some kind of science class where you studied insects, better known as entomology. Without going into great biological classification details, just know that insects make up the largest part of the Animalia Kingdom. So why is this important and what does it have to do with home vegetable gardening? Because there is such a wide variety of insects (in the millions) your home vegetable garden becomes a wonderful habitat for literally thousands of different species.

Besides the large number of species you can encounter, there are some amazing things that occur in your garden that you may not even notice, or are even aware of. For example, you can plant some broccoli which may attracts aphids. I’ll get into good and bad bugs in a moment. The broccoli is a food source for many species of aphids. In turn the aphids are a food source for ladybugs, however just because you have aphids does not necessarily draw in ladybugs, but you can see from the example the whole “circle of life” thing going on here.

This same example is replicated many times over with various insects and as your garden grows so does this process. This creates a perfect environment to walk and talk with your kids in the garden about not only the importance of what you are growing, but what you are seeing, and what happens on a smaller level. Think of it as a field trip to your backyard.

If you are skilled in the art of insect classification, that is wonderful, it will make the learning curve for your children that much easier, however, if you are like me, and have not memorized all of the one million plus insects in the world or even the few hundred thousand in your neighborhood, then there is a great tool you can use.

This handy tool, called Mac’s Field Guide, is available on Amazon. You will notice there a number of field guides to choose from as there is one for each part of the country. The guide is a large laminated sheet listing good garden bugs on one side and bad garden bugs on the other side. It doesn’t list every single insect you may encounter, it will list the most common ones that you will see in a typical home vegetable garden.

The simple definition of a bad bug is basically an insect that will eat or destroy your crops while a good insect will eat or destroy bad insects, contribute to the pollination process, etc.

When you know and understand the role of the insect you are looking at, it will help improve your home vegetable garden, as you know which insects should be removed and which ones you leave right where they are.

If your kids are anything like mine then you will see how amazed they are at how many insects they can identify from the field guide, and the questions they will ask. This backyard field trip will be educational for you and your children, and to think it’s not far away and you don’t have to pack a lunch.

About the Author
Mike Podlesny is the author of Vegetable Gardening for the Average Person: A Guide to Vegetable Gardening for the rest of us, the moderator for the largest vegetable gardening page on Facebook and creator of the monthly Seeds Club.

Watch the video below to learn more about Mike`s Seeds of the Month Club:

Keeping your Home Vegetable Garden Pest Free, Safely

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There is a question that I hear most often from home vegetable gardeners. How can you keep your garden pest free without spraying harmful chemicals on them? As one person wrote me, “Isn’t one of the points of growing your own food, to avoid all the chemicals and have it be safe?”

To me, one of the great benefits of growing your own food is being able to control the environment around your garden. That means the ability to control what goes in the soil to feed your plants up through and including what is used to keep harmful insects off your crops.

One of the best methods is to attract beneficial insects to feed on those insects that do damage. The most common example of this would be using ladybugs to eat aphids. This combination is very common. So common that you can buy ladybugs at your local garden store or online.

However if “buying” bugs is not your thing, a great resource that I learned about after reading Chris McLaughlin’s book The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Heirloom Vegetables is Craig MacGowan’s Mac’s Field Guide of Good and Bad Garden Bugs. It is a chart that lists on one side all of the common good bugs and on the other side, all of the common bad bugs. The chart is laminated and costs about five bucks. There is a chart for every area in the country as insects will vary from one location to the next. I purchased one for my area, and this chart has become an invaluable tool that I use every season. I am able to quickly identify an insect and not only determine what it is, but why it lives in my garden and whether or not I should do something to get rid of it.

You should always strive to attract beneficial insects to your garden as that will be not only the most cost affective means to get rid of harmful insects, but also the safest. However, it can be the most time consuming and at times frustrating.

Homemade spray recipes have popped up all over the Internet as a means to use safe and affective means against bad insects. I recently had a chance to speak to one such recipe creator, Jeff Gordon of Green Gordo, an informational blog for folks looking for healthy eating and living alternatives. Jeff likes to use a hot pepper/garlic spray mix to handle the leafhoppers, aphids, and June bugs he sees every year in his garden.

“My remedy isn't perfect (what is) but it keeps most of my veggies looking great,” Jeff says. “I usually keep a lot of veggies and spices in the house so I'll put together cayenne, onions, mint garlic and hot sauce. I'll puree all the contents and boil it with a little water. I'll let it sit for say 6 hours to cool and I'll strain it. I'll keep the solid part for later. I'll pour the liquid in a spray bottle and liberally spray my entire garden. I'll also take the left over solids and scatter that around the perimeter of the garden.”

Using safe sprays, such as Jeff’s, are great, and just like Grandmom’s Chicken Noodle Soup, everyone has their own recipe.

One might be thinking, “If you use these sprays, will they do harm to beneficial insects?”. In short, they might. Which is why I recommend that you attract beneficial insects first, especially if your are not inundated with harmful ones. If you are, then start using a spray to get that insect population down, or at least, under control, then wallop them with the one-two punch of beneficials.

About the Author
Mike Podlesny is the owner of Mike the Gardener Enterprises, LLC, the exclusive home for the Seeds of the Month Club, which has appeared on NBC, ABC and MSN Money as a great way for consumers to save money.

Watch the video below to learn more about the Seeds of the Month Club:

Vegetable Gardening: Help My Squash is being Attacked!

I have been growing squash (zucchini variety) for 7 years in my home vegetable gardening. They are easy to grow and the few plants I do have produce a harvest that supplies my entire family as well as being able to give some away to neighbors, friends and family.

For the first 6 years of my garden I never had any problems with my squash. That is, up until last year. That is when a species of bug showed up out of nowhere and decided to set up shop on my squash and live in the area which is probably the equivalent of humans living in the middle of a supermarket.

My wife was the first to notice the insect on my squash and came into the house to tell me about it. I didn’t think much of it since I never had any issues in previous years. I went out the next day to take a look and low and behold these ugly gray and brown looking bugs were everywhere. Well everywhere on the squash. They had no interest in any of the other vegetation in my garden, only the zucchini.

After doing some research I found that the bug in question, the ones on my squash plants, originate from Asia specifically China, although I could not find the exact region. They have been given the name “stink bug” in our area but are also referred to as squash bugs and even called shield bugs. They are part of the hemiptera order.

Although the ones I saw in my garden were brown and gray, they can also be green in some parts of the world. They are recognized by their color but more so by the triangular shape “shield” looking backs that they have.

Most stink bugs are plant eaters and are harmless to humans. They reproduce at a very fast rate and are active from the late spring to early fall. Early studies indicate they do not fair well in cooler climates but are quick adapters to the environment and when the temperatures drop will look for ways to get inside warmer areas such as a barn or a person’s home.

The bad news is they are resistant to many pesticides which make them hard to control. The good news is you can get rid of them without pesticides but you will have to work at it. Because stink bugs are harmless to humans the best way found to get them out of your garden is to remove them by hand.

Put on a good pair of garden gloves and with an empty coffee can in tow, remove the bugs and more importantly all of the egg sacks by hand and put them in the coffee can. When you have removed all of them put the lid on making sure no air can get in. This will suffocate them and they will die. Sure it’s not the most humane way of doing it, but neither is squashing them.

A very important note and that is there is a reason these bugs are called stink bugs. That is they emit an odor when they feel they are in danger or threatened. Although the odor they emit is small, it can get onto your skin and be there a while, which is when you are handling them, make sure you where good gloves and a long sleeve shirt.

There are home remedies I have read about, none of I which I personally used, so I can not comment on as to whether or not they work. But the best, most organic way, of getting rid of these pesky creatures is to remove them by hand. As long as you stay on top of the situation you will not have a problem, but it does take work.

About the Author

Mike is the author of the book Vegetable Gardening for the Average Person, as well as the president and CEO of Mike the Gardener Enterprises, LLC. You can, follow him on Twitter as well as join his Facebook fan page.