Was last week’s mystery insect one you’ve ever seen before? It is a beneficial insect that you should be happy to discover in your garden. Called, appropriately, a Lacewing, or Chrysoperla rufilabris.
Lacewings are pretty small insects, at just about 3/4 inches long. Being green they blend in perfectly to their environment, making them difficult to see, unless of course you happen to be looking for them.
Check out their eggs:
You can sometimes see their eggs hanging under a leaf, each one on a thin, hair-like stalk. This helps prevent cannibalism. Lacewing larvae are fierce predators, feeding on aphids and other soft-bodied insects. They will grow to be 1/2 inch long and are voracious feeders, attacking their tiny prey with curved, hollow mandibles. As you probably know, having aphids sucking on the juice of your plants is not great, so having lacewings in your garden is a great plan. Some companies even sell lacewing eggs to gardeners interested in having beneficial insects.
Adult lacewings feed mostly on pollen and nectar, though some will feed on insects too.
Next time you find one in your garden, you’ll be better prepared to know what it is and leave it be.