The following note came from the Texas Cooperative Extension:
Only about 5% of all the world’s insects are pests. Many insects are beneficial, helping to pollinate plants, breaking down waste material or feeding on insects we consider pests. There are numerous common arthropods (insects, spiders, etc.) that help manage pests in your own backyard. With a bit of care and patience, you can help these creatures remain to help out with your pest control.
Beneficial specialists consume a narrow range of hosts and can be very good reducing specific pest populations. If you choose to augment your backyard population by releasing things like ladybugs, it is best in an enclosed environment. Build a small cage to place over the plant with pests and release ladybugs in the cage to allow the ladybugs a smaller area in which to find the host and lay their eggs. Many times when ladybugs are introduced into a backyard habitat, they simply fly away. Building an enclosure can help prevent this from happening. Other insects are also available, such as Trichogramma sp., that parasitize eggs of a variety of insects. These can be good management tool since they attack only one stage of the insect.
When looking at things to release in your backyard to help manage pest populations, it helps to know what the pest is so that you can choose a proper insect that will eat the pest. For more information or help with identification, contact Wizzie Brown, Texas Cooperative Extension Program Specialist at 512.854.9600.
