Aphids in the wild
During the summer, pretty much whenever I want to find aphids I can find them. They are always on our rose bushes and I use no insecticides to get rid of them. When I find a ladybug in the yard, I move it to the rose bushes to trim the aphids a bit – though I haven’t found a ladybug yet this year. It is tempting to buy them in the store but I have read that these are not native ladybugs and will therefore just fly away and provide little benefit to the garden.
Still, it was a welcome sight to find some aphids in the wild this weekend while shooting near some ponds that are next to the building where I work.
This one in particular is very colorful, although I am not 100% sure it is an aphid. It almost looks like a little lobster! Unfortunately I could not find a good identity for it in my literature or online. I suspect that it does not venture into our gardens very often and therefore to the vast majority of people is uninteresting. If anyone has an idea about this one I would be very appreciative.
On future outings I think I will take a guide to Northwest plant life. Many insects reside/feed on specific types of plants and if I know the type of plant then I may have a better idea about the type of the critter. Of course, plant identification isn’t easy but I do have a book that covers the native plants in this area fairly well.
Just as I was packing up, I found this one on my camera bag.
This one is much more similar to the standard garden aphids. I have heard that only the females have wings, in which case that would make this a female.
Well, according to my kids this entry is now over as they want to play a game on the computer so…
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Tags: aphid, insect, macro, photography
We have aphids on our roses and you can have ‘em.