Beneficial Insects and Cover Crops - Dr. Curtis Young, OSU Extension, from the 2020 Conservation Tillage and Technology Conference, held March 3-4, 2020, Ada, OH, USA.

1. Halt! Who goes there?!!!
Are you Friend or Foe?!!!
Presented by
Curtis E. Young. Ph.D.
OSU Extension Van Wert County

2. Not All Insects (and Others) Are Pests!!!
l Beneficials
–Insects
–Spiders
–Mites
–Bacteria
–Viruses
–Fungi
–Nematodes

3. What are Beneficial Insects (Spiders and Mites)?
l Pollinators
l Insects, spiders, mites, etc. that eat other “harmful”
insects
l “Good Guys” “White Hats”
l Biological Control Agents
l Predators, Parasitoids, and Parasites
l Useful at suppressing pest species populations
–Aphids, mites, scale insects, etc.

4. Aspects of Beneficial Organisms
l Biological Organisms
–Requirements for their growth, development
and survival
–May require stable environments to survive
–They don’t always have our best interests in
mind
–They get up and leave when resources are low

5. Aspects of Beneficial Organisms
l Biological Organisms
–Need to protect them
–Need to provide them with alternative food
sources

6. Alternative Food Resources

7. Aspects of Beneficial Organisms
l Biological Organisms
–Need to protect them
–Need to provide them with alternative food sources
–Need to accept levels of pest species that are
targets of the beneficial organisms
–Should limit the usage of pesticides in fields

8. Reality Checks: Ideal vs Reality
l Beneficials would arrive before or at the same
time as pest species
–Beneficials tend to come in after the pest (i.e. there
is a “lag time”)

9. Reality Checks: Ideal vs Reality
l There would be a beneficial for every pest
–There aren’t necessarily specific beneficials for
each pest species
• Many beneficials are generalists and will switch from
one pest to another whenever it is easier to find

10. Reality Checks: Ideal vs Reality
l Beneficials discriminate between good and
bad insects
–NOT Necessarily!

11. Environment Disturbance
l Susceptible to environmental
disturbance/disruptions
l The stability of an environment can be very
important to establishing and maintaining
beneficials
l What factors disrupt the stability of the
environment of the beneficials?

12. Environmental Disruptions
l Harvest
– Especially if there is no cover crop
l Mono-cropping/limited plant diversity
l Plowing/cultivation
l Pesticides
– Insecticides – Direct injury
– Fungicides – Direct injury
– Herbicides – Reduction in plant diversity

13. Know your partners!
l There are numerous beneficial insects
–Many are in the following Orders
• Coleoptera – Beetles
• Hymenoptera – Wasps, Bees and Ants
• Diptera - Flies
• Hemiptera – True Bugs
–Others are scattered in other Orders
• Dermaptera - Earwigs

14. Is this a beneficial organism?
Praying Mantis

15. What won’t a praying mantis eat?

16. Need to be able to recognize your beneficial
organisms in all life stages
lMetamorphosis
–Change in form through life
–Incomplete and Complete
• Egg, nymph and adult
• Egg, larva, pupa and adult

17. Eggs of Beneficials

18. Larvae of Beneficials

19. Convergent lady
beetle eating
aphids
Adults of Beneficials

20. Predators – There are many!

21. What is this?

22. Convergent lady beetle
larva, a typical form.

23. Transverse lady beetle adult.

24. Coleomegilla maculata, often called simply “C-mac” lady beetle.

25. Lady Beetle Larvae of different species

26. What are these?

27. Multicolored Asian lady beetle,
eggs, larva, pupa and adult forms.

28. Family Coccinelidae – Lady Beetles or Ladybugs

29. A twice-stabbed
lady beetle adult
feeding on pine
needle scales.

30. Tiny Stethorus
lady beetle larva, a
mite predator.

32. The other Hymenoptera

33. Polistes wasp
eating black
cutworm

34. Lynx spider

35. All spiders have fangs and venom.

36. Wolf spider with
egg mass

37. Crab Spider
Wolf Spider
Jumping SpiderArrowshaped Micrathena

39. Predatory mite

40. Spined Soldier Bug
Mexican Bean Beetle
Larva (Grub)

41. Bigeyed bugs are common
predators of turf infesting pests, like
chinch bugs. They also
occasionally climb up ornamental
plants in search of prey. They run
and fly rapidly. They are identified
by having the head width as wide or
wider than the body width.
Damsel bugs are
common on
perennials and
flowers where they
are generalist
predators.

42. A predatory bug feeding on a gypsy moth
larva. Many predatory bugs use toxic saliva
that rapidly kills large prey. Bites from such
bugs can be very painful.

43. These lace bugs are running away
from a minute pirate bug. These
tiny bugs normally feed on eggs
and mites, but they will take on
larger prey.
This predaceous stink bug is feeding on
a pine sawfly larva. These stink bugs
specialize in feeding on caterpillars and
sawflies.

44. What are these?

45. What is this?

46. A Predator of many soft-bodied Insects

47. Sometimes I wear Camo!

48. Cocoons in which to Pupate

49. Lacewings

50. Brown lacewing adult (left) and larva feeding on aphid (right).
Dustywing adult near
spruce spider mites, a
favorite prey.

51. Who Am I?

52. I Am A Predator

53. Syrphid Flies

54. Aphid Midge

55. An anthomyiid fly feeding on a leafhopper nymph.

62. Ground beetles range from
brown and black to
iridescent blues and
greens. Most are
predators, but a few feed
on plants.
Ground beetle larvae are
often better at seeking out
and preying on other insects
than the adult stage.

66. Centipedes

67. Large fangs for
grabbing prey and
inject a toxin.
“The better to eat you
with, my dear!”
Single pair of legs per
body segment.
This lady is built for
speed.

68. Parasites and Parasitoids

69. Why are some of these aphids brown?

70. Aphid wasps are small black wasps
that lay eggs in the bodies of aphids.
Upon completing development, the
wasp larva causes the aphid body to
swell into an aphid “mummy.”

71. What’s happening here?

72. What’s happening here?

73. What’s happening here?

74. What’s happening here?

75. This cutworm has
parasitic wasp larvae
that are feeding
externally.

76. This remains of a cabbage looper
is filled with the mature larvae of
a unique wasp. Only one egg
was laid! The embryos divide
until they fill the body cavity!
This is the larva of an imported
cabbageworm which has just been
killed by wasp parasites. The
parasites have emerged and
pupated in a mass next to the host
body.

77. The Tiphia wasps dig into the soil to
locate white grubs. Their larvae feed
from the outside of the body (above),
eventually consuming the entire grub.
The mature larvae pupate in brown
cocoons in the soil.

78. Tiny parasitic wasps are some of the most efficient scale controls. Can you
find all the adults in this picture? (ans: 3)

79. Insect egg parasitoids
Some parasitoids are
so small that they
can develop
completely inside of
the eggs of other
insects

80. These large ichneumon wasps can
have two-inch long bodies and
ovipositors that exceed five inches!
Fortunately, they can’t sting. The use
the long ovipositor to locate insect
larvae burrowing in wood.

81. This tachinid is an
imported parasite of the
gypsy moth. The adults
lay eggs on host
caterpillars. The larvae
burrow into the caterpillar
and eat its internal
organs.
Family Tachinidae

82. Right Between the Eyes

83. Entomopathogenic Nematodes
Steinernema carpocapsae
S. riobravis
S. scapterisci
Vector TL, Exhibit, Savior
Vector MC, Devour
BioControl's Nematode
Heterorhabditis bacteriophora
Cruiser, Scanmask

84. Insects infected with Steinernema
nematodes are usually light tan in
color.
Note the adults (larger nematodes)
and the infective juveniles (the tiny
nematodes forming a cloud around
the grub.
Insects infected with
Heterorhabditis
nematodes are usually a
reddish color.