Green lace wings or cry so Perla roof elaborate are one of the most commonly released

natural enemies for augmentation biological control these insects are generalist predators
and they feed on a variety of insects with soft bodies like aphids and mealy bugs they’ll also
feed on theimmature stages of white files and scales they’ll eat spider mites leaf hoppers
and even small caterpillars they also feed on the eggs of insects as well as spider mites now
the larvae are wonderful predators a single larvae in its lifetime can eat 11,000 spider mites
300 to 400 a fits or 6.000 scales that is a lot of predation now the adults are not Pradesh
estefy Daan nectar and pollen and they’ll also feed on the honeydew which is a sticky syrup
that a fidex crete onto the leaves of plant the adults will find hosts on the plants and they’ll
lay their eggs next to them and the eggs are recognied because they’re on a little thread and
they suspend up above the leaf at the end of this little thread and that keeps them from
eating one another as they hatch so when you purchase lace wings they come in two forms
you can either purchase an egg or larvae and th eggs tend to be packaged in a carrier like a
rice whole or vermiculite and that separates them keeps them from eating one another but I
have some that are just eggs so you can see what they lookl like and they’re very tiny they
tend to be green as they approach hatching and when they ship the eggs to you they ship
them when they’re just about ready to hatch so that when you put them out in the
landscape they’ll be ready to start feeding in a day or two to put these in the landscape you
could just simply sprinkle them into the worlds of plants if you want to use them in an
ornamental landscape you could put little piles spoon some out onto the branch of tree for
example you can also use little paper cups in the landscape and just sprinkle some of the
eggs into the cups and you’re going to want to distribute them throughout the landscape
throughout your planting bed as the larvae hatch they’ll crawl out of the cups and onto the
foliage and they’ll look for some insects to feed on now when you purchase larvae of the
lacewing they’re shipped like this in a little cardboard honeycomb and inside each of these
little cells is a single lacewing larva and here’s one crawling around that got out somehow
but the reason that they’re shipped in these little celss is to keep them from feeding on one
another during shipping but these are ready to go ready to eat and to release these you’re
going to simply peel back the organdy cloth on the top and shake some out over your plants
I’m going to reach over here and you want to shake some of the insects out and again
you’re going to want to walk you know work through up and down your row and spread
them out in the landscape now it’s a good idea to make releases three to four times during
the early part of the season and make those releases one to two weeks apart as you make
your third or fourth release of larvae in the landscape those first releases those larvae will
be reaching adulthood they’ll mate reproduce and lay eggs and start that predation cyle all
over again so you’II have a continuous supply of predators in the landscape now the adults
are not pradesh estefy daan nectar pollen and honeydew and they require a source of sugar
and protein to mature their eggs so we can boost egg production from both the released
lace wings as well as those that naturally occur in the landscape by providing a food source
and this is also true of other predators like lady beetles and syrphid filies as well as many
parasitoids so we could provide food by planting lots of nectar rch flower around our
gardens we can also provide a food source and these generally come in a powder it contains
sugars and proteins as well as amino acids and we dilute this in water which we can simply
spray onto the plants where the adults are active and this will provide a little bit of extra
food for adult lady beetles as well and other insects studies have shown that using
supplemental feeding and planting flowers can significantly increase egg production in many
garden setting snow green lace wings are a wonderful predator to release in the landscpae
and you could use them in the vegetable garden as well as in your ornamental landscapes .