Who Is Eating My Plants?
Garden Eaters:
Aphids
Aphids are sucking insects in the order Homoptera; aphids are small, soft-bodied, pearl-shaped insects that have a pair of cornicles projecting out from abdomen. Aphids are various colors including black, green, red, yellow, pink, white, brown, grayish, or lavender.
Complex life cycle: Over wintering eggs hatch in the spring into wingless females. These wingless females are parthenogenetic. Their offspring are similar to the females, but some develop wings. Near autumn, male and female wingless forms are born. These mate and the females lay fertilized eggs for over wintering. Males can be winged or wingless and parthenogenic females are usually wingless. In warm climates, living young may be produced continually with no over wintering egg stage. All aphid life cycle stages can cause damage.
Garden Defenders
 Ladybug Larva |  Ladybug Eats Aphid Photo by Steve Berentson |
 Ladybug Adult |
Randi Jones is the owner and founder of the Nature Gift Store, an online retailer specializing in nature-themed gifts, educational science projects, live animal nature kits and real butterfly artwork. A biology graduate who fell in love with insects, she founded the company in 2001 to make active learning about nature fun, accessible and engaging for children and adults. Her store offers real butterfly frames, home and garden decor and educational live animal kits, including ant farms, worm farms, tadpoles, ladybugs and hermit crabs, and she runs a bug museum in Washington featuring live animals like Eddie the Iguana alongside other reptiles and insects.
