Garden Pests and Diseases: Friend or Foe #3, 1 by Night_Bloom

Night_Bloom wrote:
Sorry guys - had a little minor out-patient surgery that tired me out. I'm back now.

I'm going to try to answer everyone's questions. If I forget anybody please forgive me and just remind me gently.

margu - wish I could help you with the grasshoppers, but once they get big, they are hard to kill. They aren't so much of a problem here in the east. The advice TamaraFaye gave you sounds like good advice to me, especially getting them when they are young.

Sherry - I'm glad that you haven't seen any more leaf rollers, and yeah, I didn't suspect that yours were bean leaf rollers. They don't make that much silk. They are just the ones that I am familiar with and an example that not all leaf rollers are ugly.

Kelly - that looks like a sweat bee to me (family Halictidae). They are good pollinators but can be attracted to people's sweat - just don't squash them on your skin and they won't sting you.

Kathleen - I couldn't see your picture well enough to be positive what it was. My guess would be something spider related - maybe a temporary hideaway or a bird warning - but I can't be sure. Spiders often put things or spin things into their webs either to hide behind or to show birds that something is there so that the birds don't fly through their webs. It might also be, as TamaraFaye said, rolled-up spider meals.

I'll try to give a better picture tomorrow night. For now, here is a thread waisted wasp (family Sphecidae). It is called this because of its tiny waist (see arrow on second view). These are often predators on spiders and other insects. Some dig in the ground. This species makes "cocoons" out of pieces of grass which is what this particular wasp emerged out of - a grass cocoon someone had sent me for identification.