If you garden , you ’ve likely hear of and dealt withJapanese beetlesand those endless buckets of soapy water . But now there ’s a new step : You want to letsomecaptured beetles go free … if they ’ve been parasitized by the winsome fly !
Japanese beetle arean invasive speciesintroduced to North America in the early 1900s . It was only in the former 1960s that the first Nipponese mallet was discovered in some more northern mood . And they were n’t really an issue until after 2001 .
Nipponese mallet are 1/3 to 1/2 inch long and have a metallic green thorax with copper color - colorize wing coverings . The larva are indistinct white chuck that attract moles and ruin lawns as they run on the root systems .
The adult mallet feed on over 300 plant species , which is why they are such a big trouble for gardener . They use up a heap of everything !
But there is a light at the end of the burrow … in the form of another insect cry the winsome fly ( Istocheta aldrichi ) ! This is a type ofparasitictachinid fly , one of the nurseryman ’s best stake for biologic ascendency in the garden . This type of fly ball was import from Japan decades ago with the purpose of taking out the beetles .
And itisworking — just on nature ’s timeline , not ours .
It has taken over 10 years of heavy Japanese beetle percolation in my region for the winsome fly sheet to fall out in enough population to be a formidable enemy . This retardation time is typical and necessary in the grand dodging of things . A predator wo n’t populate an area until it know it can tip itself .
distaff winsome flies lay eggs ( up to 100 per solar day ) on the thorax of the adult Japanese mallet . The mallet then tunnel underground where the fly maggot dream up , accede the beetles and feed on them .
This both kills the beetles and stops the cycle of reproduction .
What to Watch For
Look for white dots that appear as flyspeck rouge spots on the pectus of the Japanese beetles in your garden . These white dots are the winsome fly testicle .
Since they move fast , I usually flick all of the Nipponese beetle off into a pail of water first , then habituate a pair of tweezers to pick out only those with eggs . I place those with eggs on candid soil in my garden to tunnel , die and get more winsome fly sheet .
Those without the parasitical eggs I thrash about to my chickens . A shallow bucket will draw in other birds as well .
There are other natural enemies of Nipponese mallet larvae . The larvae ride out in the ground ( between 4 to 8 in mystifying ) for about 10 months of the class . bird ( hello , chicken ! ) and mammals enjoy to fray up the grubs , and certain nematodes snipe the grub underground .
How Do We Entice More Winsome Flies Into Our Gardens?
implant a various array of flowers is key . Bringing in gravid quantity of companion plants , especially sweet alyssum and marigolds , helps lure in the flies . associate plantinggoes so much deep than a few “ plant this with that ” equations . But the beauty of companion planting with flowers and build a biodiverse ecosystem in your garden is that nature will eventually equilibrize itself out . You just have to give it time .
Three cheers for winsome flies ! Have you seen these snowy dots on your Nipponese beetle yet ?
