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Sat, Jun 23, 12 at 9:28
| So I've read that there are bad and beneficial insects. I'm still new to gardening so I don't know what they all are. Would love help identifying these 4.
Thanks for any help. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Can't view your picture, be glad to help id if I can... |
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| Let's try this again. Hopefully, I get the picture uploaded properly this time. |
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| 1 and 4... Some type of fruit fly? 2... Don't know 3...lightning bug?? |
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- Posted by pragmaticgardener 6 (My Page) on Sat, Jun 23, 12 at 22:12
| I saw a #1 trying to lay some film on my pumpkin leaf today, I shewed it off but I don't know what it is. |
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| 2# is a wasp of some kind, most likely it is beneficial. |
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| Are fruit flies beneficial or not? |
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| Nope, squish em if you can catch em |
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| Nope, squish em if you can catch em |
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- Posted by barnhardt9999 none (My Page) on Sat, Jun 23, 12 at 23:31
| In most cases, fruit flies are neither damaging or beneficial. Not worth the effort to try to squish. If you must get rid of them (in the house + nagging wife is the only situation I can think of) just put some wine vinegar in the bottom of a wine bottle. They will drown themselves. |
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| Thanks for all the responses! |
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| No 1 is hard to make out and I am not familiar with US insects but if the body is striped, a bit like a wasp, it could be a hover fly in which case it is a beneficial pollinator and the larvae of many species are important predators of aphids. It looks rather large for a fruit fly which in any case are not a problem for healthy growing plants. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Hoverflies
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| Yea, I had a hard time getting a picture of #1. There were a bunch of them flying around a few weeks ago. Not so many now. We have had quite a heatwave (80's-90's) for almost two straight weeks with only one day of rain. It (#1) was almost transparent in some spots if that helps. |
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| Did no 1 hover? Most hoverflies do just that. |
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| 3 is a lightening bug, firefly. The others are flies of some type but not hover flies.I wouldn't be alarmed by them. |
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- Posted by bella_trix z6b SE PA (My Page) on Sun, Jun 24, 12 at 18:13
| #1 looks like a long legged fly, although it is hard to tell from the picture. They have long legs and a generally metallic green, gold or red. They are very beneficial, love to eat white flies and aphids. This is one from my garden:
#2 looks like a soldier fly, also beneficial. Their larvae are great to have in compost, better than red worms. #3 I can't remember what this is, but my good bug/bad bug memory says "not a bad bug" Don't be quick to squish something until you've identified it. Many, many bugs in the garden are good ones. Bellatrix |
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| 1. long-legged fly- beneficial 2. solder fly -- the adult of the soldier fly larvae in compost that's on the wet side. 3. lightning bug 4. same as #1? |
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| As a general rule of thumb, I ignore flies in the garden. If you read lots of pest queries, flies rarely come up. Wasp and kin are almost unilaterally beneficial, though really aggressive species like yellowjackets are unwelcome. And things that look like fireflies are generally OK. I think what you have there in picture number 4 is a soldier beetle. Here's a link to a great website for IDing bugs. Cheers! |
Here is a link that might be useful: Bugguide Soldier Beetle
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