Eugene weekly., April 17, 2003, Page 14, Image 14

• Prayer Flags
• Candles
• Silver Jewelry
• Meditation
Cushions
•Garden Statues
Insects & Gardens
RUBY CHASM
IS IT TIME FOR A TRUCE? by Rachel Foster
152 W. 5th
344-4074
‘As the heart opens, fear disappears.’
BREEMA
The Art of Being Present
May 2-4 Intensive in Eugene
Three supportive days of . . .
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B REEMA ® BODYWORK
S ELF -B REEMA ® EXERCISES
Beginners welcome
Partial attendance avail. N INE P RINCIPLES OF H ARMONY
21 CEU’s for LMT’s
21 CEU’s for DC’s
21 hours, $295
Presented by
Breema Northwest staff
instructors and guest
Jon Schreiber, D.C., author
of several books on Breema.
A workshop for anyone interested
in a practical connection with
the instinctive wisdom of
the body and our natural
state of vitality and
balance.
Free Intro Class: May 1
B REEMA N ORTHWEST (541) 344-8741
www.BreemaNorthwest.com
14 APRIL 17, 2003
www.breema.com
photos: George Draper, Bruce Barrett
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nsects are Earth’s dominant animal life-
form, and they’ve been around for 400
million years. Humans have existed for a
mere 100,000 years. Scientists recognize
nearly a million insect species, and estimate
that up to 29 million remain to be discov-
ered. As individuals, insects out-number
people by half a billion to one. In a contest
between humans and insects, it’s pretty clear
who will win. Entomologist and gardener
Eric Grisell thinks it may be time for a truce.
In the U.S. alone, we apply about a bil-
lion pounds of pesticides to our soil, forests,
crops and gardens in a single year. Most of
this stuff is useless and occasionally worse
than useless at preventing insect damage (I
once read that the fraction of commercial
crops lost to insects is about the same today
as it was before WWII) and, of course, it is
toxic. But you knew that. What you may not
know, according to Grisell, is that there are
more bugs in your garden than you think.
Gardeners mostly notice larger species that
are out and about in the daytime, and the
ones that do perceptible damage to a leaf or
a flower. The other 1,500 or so we are large-
ly unaware of, yet almost all of them are
doing something useful.
Last week, In a talk addressed to a gather-
ing of gardeners, Grisell made it clear that
where insects are concerned we often know
less than we think we do. Specifically, we
know little about what our insects are really
doing. Gardeners dislike earwigs, yet most of
them (and there are hundreds of species, by
the way) prey on the eggs of other insects. On
the other hand the praying mantis, an insect
predator that most of us know and value, is
an indiscriminate killer, as likely to feed on
bees and butterflies as on insects we think of
as pests. Mantids even kill snakes and hum-
ming birds. The “pest” gardeners call a rose
slug is the larva of a wasp which serves as a
pollinator. Yellow jackets hunt caterpillars.
Mosquitoes provide food for many animals.
And both serve as pollinators, too.
Pollination is isn’t the only vital role per-
formed by insects. Those that are predators
and parasites help to regulate other insects.
Flies, ants, beetles and butterflies feed on
dead plants and animals and dung, an invalu-
able clean-up job.
The message I came away with is that we
gardeners should forget about good insects
and bad insects, and concern ourselves
instead about balance. Insects become pests
when insect life is out of balance, and Grisell
listed four situations that make this happen:
introduction of an alien insect; the use of
chemicals; the existence of monocultures;
and loss of habitat.
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Mon. - Sat 10-6
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LARVA OF PAINTED LADY BUTTERFLY
PHOTO BY ROBIN B. CUSHMAN
Earth Day 2003
When a garden plant falls victim to an
alien insect, the easiest option may be to
remove the plant. (This also applies in a situ-
ation Grisell did not specify: when the gar-
dener plants something, often an exotic, that
proves especially susceptible to insect dam-
age.) Another option is timely treatment with
the least toxic remedy. Grisell cited an exam-
ple from his own garden, the attack of an
Eastern hemlock by the woolly adelgid. In
this case, two staggered sprayings with either
insecticidal soap or horticultural oil, timed to
the reproductive cycle of the insect, would
probably have controlled the problem.
Grisell waited too long, and lost the tree.
Perhaps he could have saved the tree had he
chosen to spray with a more toxic synthetic
chemical. The trouble is, such insecticides
are indiscriminate. They may kill the target
pest, but they also throw the insect popula-
tion out of balance.
Lawns and rose beds, gardening’s com-
monest monocultures, account for a huge
share of garden chemical use (and, shame-
fully, gardeners use more pesticide than
farmers do). Both attract destructive insects
while reducing the diversity that could foster
organisms to control them. Mixing roses in
with other flowers and minimizing the area
of lawn can go some way to reducing insect
damage. It is also helpful to feed your lawn
organically and weed it, if at all, by hand,
maintaining a healthy, balanced soil fauna.
Within the garden, monoculture and loss of
habitat are two sides of the same coin.
Diversity yields complexity yields balance.
Natural insect habitat outside our yards is
constantly being eroded. We can help make
up for that by the way we garden. We need to
be messier! Gardens may also benefit from
being weedier (don’t you love it when some-
one exhorts you to do less?). Leaf litter and
weeds provide shelter and food for insects of
all sorts. And, of course, we can plant many
herbs and ornamentals that support insect
life. The mint family (mint, anise hyssop),
the carrot family (dill, parsley, fennel), the
sunflower family (daisies, yarrow) and the
onion family are particularly rich in plants
that support a myriad of insects.
Eric Grisell, who spoke to the Willamette
Valley Hardy Plant Group on April 8, is
author of Insects and Gardens (Timber
Press). Another book with useful information
on gardening with insects is Gaia’s Garden
by Toby Hemenway (Chelsea Green). Note:
The annual plant sale sponsored by the
Hardy Plant Group, Rock Garden Society
and Garden Clubs is scheduled for 9 am to 2
pm May 10 at the Lane County Fairgrounds.
ew