Top 10 Most Wanted Bugs in Your Garden – Parasitic Wasp
  • October 2, 2018
  • Posted by: Mike McQueen, Charles Ray, and Kerry Smith
  • in Lawn & Garden
parasitic wasp
Parasitic Wasp

*This is an excerpt from Top 10 Most Wanted Bugs in Your Garden, ANR-2283.

Aliases: fairy fly, chalcid

Wanted For: Parasitizing the eggs and larvae of cutworms, cabbage loopers, codling moths, tomato hornworms, as well as all stages of aphids, whiteflies, scales, and other pests.

Family History: These tiny, notorious wasps lay their eggs on or inside of pests or insect eggs and the larvae eat the pest. Can be tracked by the tell-tale signs they leave behind, such as tiny, white cocoons on caterpillars or aphid mummies—the tan, dried up husks of aphids stuck to a leaf.

Sightings: Suspected of foraging for nectar on tiny flowers such as alyssum, yarrow, tansy, and clover.

Mike McQueen, Regional Extension Agent, Home Grounds, Gardens and Home Pests; Charles Ray, Research Fellow, Entomology and Plant Pathology, Auburn University; and Kerry Smith, State Master Gardener Program Coordinator, Auburn University

Reviewed November 2021, Top 10 Most Wanted Bugs in Your Garden, ANR-2283

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