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Article: When it Comes to Pestering Pests, Some Bugs Bug Other Bugs Best.(insect use in pest control)
- Article from:
- National Wildlife
- Article date:
- August 1, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 National Wildlife Federation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Jake Blehm raises killers for a living. The killers are half-inch-long insects known as green lacewings. In the larval stage, lacewings must be kept in separate cardboard compartments or they'll eat each other.
To keep them mean and healthy, Blehm feeds them beef liver, chicken and other ingredients that he mixes in a blender.
"Lacewings love it," he says. "We call it our meat smoothie."
What makes these little cannibals worth raising is the way they devour aphids, mites, whiteflies, mealybugs, caterpillars and many other plant pests. To protect their crops from these pests, commercial farmers and home gardeners pay Blehm $15 for a carton of ...