Yay, Parasites!
August 31 My view of parasites is largely informed by letters home from my children's school. "Health notice" in the subject line of an email from the school is the equivalent of unexploded ordinance, right? While I'll probably still dread any mention of lice even after today, I've discovered that there is such thing as a good parasite.
See this guy? This giant green Tomato Hornworm (cool people also know it as the Manduca quinquemaculata) was attempting to chow its way through our Big Girls and Brandywines. Now, see all those white things on it? I thought they were eggs.
They're not eggs, they're the larvae of my new best friend, the Braconid wasp. The wasp larvae are eating the hornworms, helping to guarantee a new phalanx of soldier's for next year's fight, too. Go, little white squirmy parasites!
;){kind=link}
Reader Comments (3)
Oh, I ADORE parasites! Did you know there's a parasite that turns snails into zombies? The mom lays eggs that the snail eats. But they're ungrateful little squirts and insist they must have larger digs. So they take over the snail's brain and make it climb to the top of the grass so it can be eaten by a cow. If only moving house were so easy for humans. Maybe it would be if we were born in the gut of a snail.
Parasites are awesome.
Except head lice. Head lice suck. Also tape worms. And bed bugs. Mosquitoes, fleas. Leeches.
Except those. But Braconid wasps are totally cool. Go parasites!
The Manduca quinquemaculata is the larval form of the Five-Spoted hawk moth. They're nocturnal butterflies, feeding on the nectar of flowering plants. It's a toss-up for me in my garden. Sometimes I kill em' and sometimes I let em' go. :)) I had no idea about the B. wasp larvae...thanks, Sarah! I learned something new today! Isn't it nice when nature does your dirty work, such as insect control? I love it! Great post. ~Candy
Hi, My name is christine,and I am one of the owners of Futures Best Nursery Academy in Fort Lee.I would like to Let you know about our summer program. Each week has a " theme", for example our first week, July 5th-9th is western week. One day will be having square dance lessons another will be making a wagon and so forth. We also have picnic days and sprinkler days daily. Please feel free to call or stop by to see all the other creative and exciting things we have in store for our kids this summer.