Every morning I inspect all the plants in the vegetable garden. Lately some type of butterfly has been laying little yellow eggs on the tips of the leaves of some of the plants. If these are allowed to stay just a few days on the plant the result is many, many little caterpillars happily eating the plant. If gone unnoticed for a few more days they can eat an entire leaf and grow and eat even more.
Yesterday I saw, what we in the past have called the "barnacle bug", crawling around on the tip of a mustard green leaf. What I saw next surprised me. The bug was eating the same yellow butterfly eggs I have been removing from the plants. I watched for quite a while to be sure he was actually eating the eggs and it was true! I took to the internet to find out what kind of beneficial insect this could be and discovered it is the larvae of the Green Lacewing, an excellent beneficial insect. The internet tells me the larvae puts bits of dust, dried plants or dead bugs on his back to act as a camouflage. They are most beneficial in the garden at this stage and will eat anything they come across. Now whenever I see one of these guys walking around the inside of our house I will be sure to carefully relocate him to the vegetable garden.
