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| Feverfew is an herb said to help cure headaches. This tough plant grows green here through most of the winter and hosts beneficial insects that destroy insect pests. |
Because of their very small stature, minute pirate bugs are difficult to see. This one is resting on the back of a dime-sized feverfew blossom waiting for prey. Their needlelike mouthpart ingests the internal fluids of their victim once captured.
Minute pirate bugs overwinter as adults, with day length determining when the insects shift into and out of diapause (a physiological state of dormancy akin to hibernation). Adults emerge in spring and begin to feed. Though they are primarily meat eaters, minute pirate bugs also feed on pollen and plant juices when prey are scarce, making early-blooming plants and flowers important to their survival. Females go on to lay eggs in plant tissue. The eggs hatch three to five days later and the nymphs pass through five instars (life stages between molts) before maturing into adults.
Because minute pirate bugs also suck plant juices (though never to the detriment of the plant), they are susceptible to systemic insecticide applications. These diminutive predators are often found crawling around the flowering stems of plants as well as leaf undersides where they are stalking their prey. Minute pirate bugs feed by piercing their captured prey with a needlelike mouthpart and ingesting the internal fluids.
Walliser, Jessica. Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden: A Natural Approach to Pest Control (Kindle Locations 713-723). Timber Press. Kindle Edition.
Feverfew Crawling with Beneficial Insects
SYNONYMS Chrysanthemum parthenium, Matricaria parthenium, Pyrethrum parthenium FAMILY Asteraceae (aster) • perennial in USDA zones 5–9; grown as an annual below zone 5 • native of Eurasia • blooms late spring to early summer • 1–2 feet (0.3–0.6 m) high and as wide Feverfew is tough as nails. Thriving in lousy soils and full to partial sun, feverfew grows like a weed, and thus the caution I give in the next paragraph. Each small daisylike inflorescence comprises hundreds of tiny yellow disk flowers surrounded by a row of white rays. The ferny foliage is heavily fragranced (I don’t like the scent, but others do) and medium green. On any given day in my garden, the flowers of feverfew are crawling with tachinid flies, lacewing larvae, ladybug larvae, minute pirate bugs, syrphid flies, damsel bugs, assassin bugs, spiders, and lots of other natural enemies.That said, be aware that this plant likes to make babies—a whole lot of babies. So much so that my stand of feverfew starts every year as a carpet of fuzzy green seedlings. I have to pull the vast majority of them out so that my other plants have room to
Walliser, Jessica. Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden: A Natural Approach to Pest Control (Kindle Locations 2753-2766, 2771-2773). Timber Press. Kindle Edition.
On Facebook, I told Jessica Wallister that I start with the beneficial bugs I want, then plant the flowers that host them. She approved.
I planted my first Feverfew last fall, 2018, and they stayed green most of the winter. When spring arrived, they shot up, and heavy rains had them growing four (4) feet tall. Each little flower produces lots of tiny seeds. They are more like dust.
I want more of them, so I pinch off the seed-heads and crush them here and there in the garden, especially where weed-whackers whack not. I do not know which seeds will grow, but I know they are living creations that have the power to germinate, sprout, grow, and multiply.
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| This is Snow on the Mountain. The plants that grow in the shade and multiply are properly called Bishop's Weed, but often borrow the Snow on the Mountain name. |
I cannot see why people miss the analogy of the Word and living seed. No matter how we plant the seeds, no one can tell which seeds will grow to fruition, and yet some do, often when least expected. I tossed true Snow on the Mountain into a growing area and that beautiful flower grew out from the foliage around it.
The Sower and the Seed parable teaches us not to worry about which seed will grow but instead to sow the Word with abandon. What belongs to God - His Word - will accomplish His will.
Wherever the Gospel is preached and taught, eternal life rises up from Justification by Faith.
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| By Norma A. Boeckler |
