Question from Lee:

In recent years, ladybugs have taken their voracious appetites around the world, and they don’t just gobble up target insects. Couple this with plagues of ladybugs infesting homes, and you’ve got an unseemly problem on your hands.

To fight their spread, flightless ladybugs were released as a biological control agent. The idea being that the walk-only ladybugs wouldn’t spread as far as quick. Harlequin’s aren’t to be put off it would seem. The two types of ladybugs can hybridize, giving rise to offspring that are larger, faster-growing, and generally more robust than either of its parent species. Preliminary research suggests that the cross-bred young are even better-equipped to deal with starvation.

The findings by BenoÎt Facon of UMR Centre de Biologie et de Gestion des Populations in Cedex, France, and his colleagues are just a beginning. Researchers want to test multiple generations of hybrid and subject them to different conditions to unravel the magnitude of the Harlequin ladybug dilemma.

You can read more about their discoveries in the current issue of Evolutionary Applications.

Answer from Pat:
According to the link you sent me, the beetle you photographed is a Multicolored Asian Ladybeetle (Harmonia axyridis), an exotic insect introduced into the United States in order to control pests. This insect may be one of the exotic species that is hybridizing with our native ladybugs. The photographs below are said to show some of these hybrids including one photo that appears similar though not exactly the same as the beetle you found in Del Mar. (Second row up, second from the left.)

I had heard of the Cornell study involving backyard biologists looking for lost ladybugs. They found a ladybug species that was thought to have disappeared from New York. But here is some less cheery news: It seems as if some of these exotic introduced ladybugs are hybridizing with our native ladybugs and morphing into new insects that may actually upset the balance of nature. Our native ladybugs are beneficial types that eat pests, especially aphids, but according to some studies I have read that these new insects are fast-spreading and voracious, though non-flying, and may also eat a larger range of insects than we want them to eat.

When I saw your ladybug photo yesterday I wondered about it because of its orange color and smudgy spots. I had heard of orange ladybugs used as beneficials in the Sacramento Valley, but was not sure what yours was. The ladybugs shown in the photos below are listed as Harlequin-ladybugs, not the beneficial ones we are familiar with but possibly harmful hybrids. (Their habits are being studied.) You were wise to report your find to the Lost Ladybug study. Thank you for doing that and thank you for sharing your photo with me and with my readers.

Related posts:

1. Mandarine Oranges/Southern California
2. Fragrant Plant in Southern California
3. Native Plants of the Southern California Coast

Question from Jon:

Answer from Pat:
From the photo you sent I see your lemon tree is badly infested with ants and these ants have brought the tree a bad attack of soft brown
scale. One of the many scales that attack citrus, soft brown scale is oval in shape and can be yellowish as your photos show. These are usually females and they
give birth in mid-summer to pale yellow crawlers, such as you squashed. Ants spread scale around since they give off honeydew and the ants live on
the honeydew. Often there will be black sooty mold as well. Several beneficial insects are parasites of soft brown scale. If you spray with poisons you have been killing the beneficial parasites, but in this case your tree is stressed from not growing vigorously.

Your first step is to make a bucket of soapy water and take a wash rag and wash that plant all over with soapy solution getting rid of the scale and the ants. Just keep drowning them in the bucket. Take time and get every one of them off. Best soap to use is a fatty acid made for landscape use but any common dish detergent such as Palmolive green dish-wash soap is okay to use. Next thing after that make sure no foliage hits the ground or another tree, a shrub, a fence or a building. Other wise ants will come back that way. Water the tree thoroughly. Usually this is not a good time to fertilize citrus but yours is in a pot and probably starving so you had better feed it fish emulsion according to package directions. Take away all that bark mulch from the surface of the soil in the pot and replace with a layer of an inch or two of dry earthworm castings. This will get rid of the ants. Ants will not cross dry earthworm castings. It kills them. The next day, after the foliage is all dry, spray the tree with a light summer horticultural oil to kill any remaining scale.

Plants that suffer such bad insect problems as those I see on this citrus are usually already weakened because of bad growing conditions. You need to put your Meyer lemon in full sun and feed it regularly so that it grows vigorously. As soon as roots fill the pot, pot it on into a larger size. In January fertilize the tree with adequate organic fertilizer as described for citrus in the January chapter in my book. The first plants that pests attack are the plants that are not vigorous and healthy.

Related posts:

1. Choosing Citrus Trees for home garden
2. Ant-infested Kumquat Tree
3. Growing Citrus Trees on Drip

Question from Elin:

Answer from Pat:
White grubs are the larval form of various beetles and bugs, such as June Bugs, who lay their eggs in the ground. White grubs eat plant roots. However, my experience has been that they don’t do much harm in the vegetable or flower garden. In lawns, on the other hand, white grubs can cause ugly dead patches, but this is seldom a problem if the soil is permitted to go somewhat dry between waterings. Nonetheless, when digging up the ground ahead of planting season, I do the same as you do. I pick up the grubs and throw them into a bucket. I have tried putting them in a dish for the birds without much success. Starlings will sometimes land on lawns and do the grub control for you, but I guess they only like catching their own.

Anywhere in the garden—lawn, vegetable garden or flowerbed— there are a couple of organic solutions to the white grub problem. One is to purchase Gardens Alive “Grub Away” nematodes: http://www.gardensalive.com/product.asp?pn=5000. These are the correct species to kill white grubs. Gurneys also carries them. My experience is that these nematodes really work but only in moist soil that stays moist and does not dry out completely between irrigations. Since those requirements don’t describe the majority of situations in my garden, they worked only partially for me. Nonetheless, I think that it would be worth your while to try using these nematodes and perhaps they will work for you. I have reason to suppose that they might have proliferated in my garden and still be present here even many years after first introducing them to my garden soil. If you purchase these beneficial nematodes be sure to request the type for mild climates.

Another way to control white grubs is to purchase MIlky Spore Disease. I did that also. Gardens Alive also carries this product and you can purchase it elsewhere also. Milky Spore Disease does not work as well out here in the west as it does in the northern and eastern portions of the United States, since we do not have the same grubs here. Nonetheless, it is likely to be of partial help.

Related posts:

1. Please Help Save the Bees Pt 2
2. French Marigolds Work Against Nematodes
3. Clover Attracts Ladybugs

Question from Tressa:
I love your month by month gardening book and have read it almost cover to cover.

My problem is armies (literally of snails) I live in Claremont, Ca. (new Pomona not San Diego) in the foothills and have snail attracting ground covers which I can’t easily remove. I have tried every organic method – my favorite was trays of beer which everything but the snails liked. I can pick buckets of snails every time I water. Sluggo works somewhat, but everything is eaten up. the only thing that really works is deadline or something other strong poison which I don’t want to use. do you have any suggestions?

Answer from Pat:
I am very familiar with Claremont, California and wonder if you live in Padua Hills? I graduated from Scripps College after four memorable years and a great college experience. (I was an English and Art Major.) My husband whom I married on graduation day, and I later lived in Claremont for a couple of years, during which I returned to Scripps as the Teaching Assistant in Freshman Humanities. (The History, Religion, Literature, Art, and Culture of the Ancient World, a double-credit course.)

I agree that organic controls for snails are not totally successful, whereas Deadline is highly successful, but I hasten to say I’m with you. I don’t use it any more. A few years ago before I returned to my roots and became so totally organic as I am today, I used to put one drop of Deadline on the base of every cymbidium flower spike as soon as it had grown tall, just before the buds opened. (Cymbidium blooms are a magnet for snails.) Also I climbed around in my large drifts of clivia (Clivia miniata) and put one drop of Deadline at the base of every bloom stem before the flowers opened. Dogs and cats did not come into contact with the Deadline since it was deep within the leaves, not in a place frequented by animals, but by doing this once every year in late February or early March, my snail problem was largely solved for the entire year. Since snails love cymbidium and clivia blooms better than almost any other plant, they acted like a traps, attracting snails from the entire garden. Deadline cut them off at the pass. Getting them early is what counts.

People who have an orange grove have an opportunity to use the trees as an organic trap. In areas of seasonal frosts every year, such as where you live, the snails on orange trees all congregate in winter in the center of the tree. If you have an orange tree yourself, just take a look in the crotches of the branches in the middle of the tree in December or January. This is where the snails go to hibernate, protected from freezing by the foliage surrounding them and by each others shells. Sometimes there will be fifty or a hundred snails or more all congregated together in the center of the tree. It is not a pleasant or easy job, but go in there wearing gloves and carrying a large sack, pull them off the tree, bag them, smash them, and send them to the dump and snail problems on orange trees are done for the year.

I do, however, have another suggestion of an organic control that really works, but I am not sure if you are going to like it, and that is ducks. Ducks eat slugs and snails by the thousands and then you would collect the eggs. (I find the eggs too strong for my taste, however.) But ducks are messy and they do want a bit of a pond to splash around in. Slightly less good as slug and snail control but almost equal to ducks at eating slugs and snails, and a lot less messy and noisy, are chickens. These days you can even purchase an inexpensive, ready-made, moveable chicken coop designed for moving around on a lawn, but why not on ground cover? Or make your own enclosure out of chicken wire. You would just move it around on your ground cover and the chickens would clean up the snails and give you simply delicious, nutritious eggs in return. If your ground cover is inside a fenced yard you let the chickens run free.

People these days are learning that chickens make very nice family pets. Children love them but so do grownups. When you are home you can let them out and they gladly clean up all the pests in the garden and give you delicious eggs to eat yourself and share with friends. Many good types are appropriate for family use. Rock Cornish hens are among the most popular right now but there are some other incredibly beautiful ones besides these and you can have lovely green and blue eggs from Araucana chickens if you want. If you introduce the chickens as chicks and keep them penned at first, smart dogs and cats will learn they are part of your pack. (Or at least they should. Only a very dumb dog won’t learn this, and unfortunately years ago I owned such a dog and lived on a farm so that dog had to go.) Also the coops with tops on them can protect your chickens during the daytime from hawks and such that might attack if you aren’t home. At night lock them into a compact but stoutly made chicken house so they are safe from foxes and coyotes. Chickens come home by themselves in the evening, since they can’t see at night. Kids love them and you will too.

Keeping a few hens is fun and is all the rage right now among organic gardeners and with people who believe in eating healthy homegrown food. There are many books on keeping a few back-yard chickens and there’s loads of free and helpful information on the internet. You might even find helpful club in your area of chicken owners.

Related posts:

1. Baby snails killing our Blue Star Creeper
2. Snails
3. Tree dahlia (Dahlia imperialis) with leaf miners

Question from Jonnie:

Answer from Pat:
Without seeing your crape myrtle (Lagestroemia indica) or a photo of the bark I cannot tell if there is anything wrong with it. However, though it may look a bit messy now, most likely nothing is amiss. People plant crape myrtles not only for their spectacular summer flowers but also for their interesting mottled gray, taupe, pink and fawn bark. Like sycamores, the bark of crape myrtle does not stretch or become furrowed as most tree bark does. Instead, as the tree grows its bark peels off in patches, revealing the new pink bark beneath. This mottled look is actually one of this tree’s most interesting characteristics.
With this tree you get a triple whammy: spectacular fall flowers, fall leaf color, and handsome bark that is especially
attractive in winter after leaves fall.

Crape myrtles grow best in interior climate zones where summers are hot and dry. They do not like water-logged
soil and perform best in well-drained soil with deep but infrequent irrigation, and light pruning in late winter or early spring to encourage new growth for summer bloom. Crape myrtle blooms on new wood. Letting the tree go slightly dry in late summer and withholding summer fertilizer will increase the display of blossoms in late summer and early fall. It is not a good idea to plant this tree in a lawn.

Crape myrtles are not good choices for Sunset Zone 24 where coastal fog and June Gloom blankets gardens in moist air. In such conditions crape myrtles tend to succumb to mildew. Mildew doesn’t affect the trunk. It affects the leaves and sometimes also the flowers. The general guidance for planting all trees is to plant them straight into unamended native soil, since the tree will eventually have to grow there anyway. That said, crape myrtles thrive best in soil that is well drained. Gardeners who plant them in heavy clay soil would be wise to provide a raised bed.

Such a bed does not need to be very high. Even four inches will save the crown of the tree from becoming water-logged. Fill the raised bed with good quality top soil mixed with nutrients and well-composted organic matter, but before doing so apply gypsum liberally to the native soil. Next dig some of your fill into the hard ground below, to create a marriage of soils instead of a hard line between the two. Then dig the planting hole straight through the top soil and mixed soil into the native soil beneath. Add more gypsum in the bottom of the hole and some slow release organic fertilizer in the bottom of the planting hole. Then plant the tree and refill the hole. Make a watering basin and keep the roots well watered until established then gradually lengthen out the times between irrigations.

Related posts:

1. Chinese Fringe Tree or Crepe Myrtle
2. Fruit Drop From Peach Trees
3. Planting California Native Plants

Question from Tressa:

Answer from Pat:
Thanks for this excellent comment on snails and for your kind comment on my blog. Yes, decollate snails really do work. Sometimes it takes a few years for them to get going, but once they do, our large (edible-escargot-type) snails are gone. The decollate snails only eat the babies so it takes a while for the large adult snails to die off. I’m glad you reminded me of how effective they can be since I think I will spread some this winter into ground covers and succulents. The only negative thing about decollate snails is that they eat small seedlings so if one likes to plant wildflowers or vegetables from seeds this can be a nuisance.

I have a succulent bank flanking my drive and this would be a good place for me to spread decollate snails since they won’t stray from it. Once the rains start, the snails get going munching on leaves and ruining the bank’s appearance. A couple of years ago I asked a volunteer who was helping me to spread Sluggo on that bank, a difficult task for me. My volunteer helper said that was one job she couldn’t do because she couldn’t kill anything, even a snail. I told her that life on a farm had prevented me from having similar feelings. But later that day and unbeknown to me she took pity on me and picked up all the snails she could find, bagged them in a brown paper bag, and put them into her truck, meaning to release them somewhere else on her way home. Then she promptly forgot them. A day or two went by and the snails got out and climbed all over inside the truck. They got under the roof, dashboard, and seats, onto the  windows and inside the windshield, and everywhere else. It was a super hot day, and the snails were trapped inside a closed hot truck. Of course they died. My friend the volunteer didn’t tell my for a year what had happened or how long it took her to get the horrendous smell of dead fish out of her truck!

Related posts:

1. Baby snails killing our Blue Star Creeper
2. Organic Snail Control

Question from Bonnie:

Answer from Pat:
Too bad about the veggie garden. Ground squirrels eat the tops off plants, such as cole crops. Do you have ground squirrels? Not likely to be crows. They go more for grain and pine nuts. Possum is possible but not too likely… but rabbits? Yes, big time! Way to tell is this: If it is a rabbit, they leave jagged-edge teeth marks. If it is a rat they leave a slice downwards from left to right or right to left on one side as if cut straight through at an angle by a gardener with a sharp pair of secateurs. If it is a ground squirrel, they chomp off the top in a straight line through the stem (not at an angle) but sometimes (though not always) they leave a leaf behind, hanging by a thread or lying on the ground. All will come back night after night. Ground squirrels take more sorts of things, beginning with favorite items and after that they move on and take the less favorite also. Rats stick with well-favored plants. A particular rat will get a liking for one plant and then go around the garden eating just that one thing. One can always tell it’s a rat by the precise angle of the clean cut.

Related posts:

1. Raccoons in the Vegetable Garden
2. Ground Squirrels Undermining Bank
3. New Solution to Animal Pest Problems

Question for Mary:

Answer from Pat:
Cathedral plant (Euphorbia trigona) grows extremely well as a houseplant, but needs occasional diluted fertilizing during the growing months, in addition to well-drained soil, and adequate light with no direct sun. I have seen several huge ones growing indoors. Due to this euphorbia’s multi “trunks” getting rid of a persistent pest such as thrips without spraying is more than a challenge, it’s nigh impossible. Luckily, Spinosad will control thrips. This is an OMNI-registered product and so it is safe to use indoors and since there are no bees indoors it can’t hurt anything. Nonetheless, one should take care to protect your lungs and not to breath in the product while spraying. (Covering a large plant with a big shopping bag or large trash bag while spraying can help accomplish this.) Also clean up and replace the the top 1/4 of the soil or rock in the pot. You may need to spray more than once. Out in the garden thrips are best controlled by beneficial insects but I can just imagine what it would be like to release lady bugs inside the house. A noble idea with tragi/comedy results.

Related posts:

1. Clover Attracts Ladybugs
2. Organic fertilizers for indoor plants
3. Native Grasses & Succulents Suitable For Planting Near A Coastal Lagoon

Question from Kathy:

Answer from Pat:
Homemade repellants won’t solve your problem. The first thing to do is to make an intelligent diagnosis. If you wear glasses for reading you will need them for this job.

The way to diagnose what’s eating your plants is to go out at night, after dark—about 9:00 p.m. at this time of year (fall) with a flash light and a magnifying glass in addition to your glasses. Take along a kitchen bucket with some water in it. Look closely at the leaves and you will find the culprit. If it is small caterpillars, these are budworms. If large green caterpillars, these are loopers. Either way, the solution is the same. Hand pick and then spray the next day with Spinosad or BT. (Both are organic products even though Spinosad kills bees but it won’t harm bees if you use it in a wise and restricted manner only in places, like leaves where bees won’t go. BT works against caterpillars and does not harm bees, but you need to spray more often. You also need a fresh bottle of BT dated for this year, not an old bottle since it’s Bacillus thuringiensis, a live organism that kills caterpillars and nothing else. It does not last forever. Spinosad lasts longer on the plant and in the environment, and is more effective than BT but please be very very careful not to spray it on geranium flowers if you ever see bees visiting the flowers. (Usually bees don’t visit geraniums.) Remember, Spinosad kills bees if the spray is where they visit and even if it is dry on pollen they will carry it back to their hives and it makes baby bees sick and some will die. Please don’t cause this to happen.

There is something else that might be eating your geraniums. First, yes of course it might be grasshoppers or locusts. But you mentioned brown insects that look like grasshoppers. We will get to those in a minute. First green grasshoppers or locusts. You can catch these and squish them quickly, but you need to be exceedingly quick. I am often quite a sketch myself trying to catch these speedy creatures. Of course, if you are into this sort of thing you could dip them in batter and fry them! (GRIN.)Yes, they are edible, a fine source of protein, eaten by Africans, reputed to be crunchy and delicious, though I have never tried them myself and sometimes sold, like ants, coated in chocolate or flavored with hot pepper. You most likely would see locusts in daylight, however, and might need a net to catch them. Diatomaceous earth sprinkled onto leaves kills them but doesn’t look good on plants.

Another worse possibility is that you have an infestation of dread walking sticks. These are the brown things you might have seen. The good news is they are very easy to catch at night. These nocturnal things called Indian walking sticks began as pets and escaped into our gardens where they have settled down and are quite happy. They live in the ground in leaf litter and emerge at night to decimate your plants. They look exactly like slowly walking pieces of twig either green or brown. Pick them off carefully or they will drop to the ground. Drop them in that bucket of water you brought with you to drown them in. I think it’s kinder to squish them first. Give them a quick death if you can but no need to use poisons. Put a layer of dry earthworm castings on the ground beneath the plant to kill the rest of them as they emerge from the ground. Keep on going out at night each evening and getting rid of them until they are all gone. Many friends of mine have gotten rid of infestations this way, just keeping at it. You may have to go out at 10:00 pm to find them since they are so slow moving it takes them a while after dark to wake up and get moving. Weevils are another possibility. They live in the ground also but it’s immediately clear if the problem is weevils since these sluggish and slow-moving creatures take evenly shaped rounded bites out of the edges of leaves, leaving the leaf with what looks like a scalloped edge.

Related posts:

1. What is eating my geraniums?
2. Budworms on Geraniums and Mildew Resistant Zinnias
3. Citrus Leaf Miners

Question from Cynthia:

Answer from Pat:
Some of the spiders you describe may not be true spiders but rather spider mites, but first lets discuss spiders. In organic gardens where no poisons are used, spiders are among the most beneficial of creatures, catching more bad bugs and pests than almost any other. Spiders are arachnids, not insects and they are terrestrial predators, catching and eating tons of pests annually. Reading between the lines of your question I feel that you agree with me it’s tragic and misguided to spray with poisons that kill these most helpful of creatures that help mankind worldwide grow pest-free crops without the use of poisons. Some experts are of the opinion that spiders do more good than any other class of beneficials. They also catch and kill insects such as mosquitos that cause disease.

I deplored a recent TV ad in which a little boy’s mother asks him, “if you see a bid bad spider what will you do? He says he’d call out, “Mother!” “And what will mother do?” she asks, and the poor little boy (squirming because he doesn’t like this a bit!) says, “Get rid of it!” She gives him a lecture about calling a pesticide company to “Get Rid of Bad Bugs!” and the little boy who knows far better than his mother asks plaintively, “Are we done yet?”

I told the TV station to “Get Rid of That Ad!” because they ought to know better. Spiders are not bad bugs but good and highly beneficial arachnids and we should not be teaching lies to children. Finally, the ad disappeared and a much better one appeared with cockroaches starring in the roll of the bad bug. This makes more sense.

Spiders are most plentiful in late summer and fall but, though all spiders are highly beneficial and all of them have poisonous bites, an expert on spiders once told me that very few have the capability of biting human beings. Most spiders do not have mouth parts strong enough to pierce human skin and therefore often when people think they got a spider bite or even if a doctor says they did, it probably was not one, since few house spiders are capable of biting humans.

That said there are some spiders that can bite and harm humans, though the bite if treated is almost never fatal. Black widows and brown recluse spiders (often called violin spiders) are among those that one does not want to have in one’s garden. Even black widows are beneficial but we don’t want our children or ourselves to be bitten by them. So I have no compunctions about killing black widows and getting rid of their messy webs. Though violin spiders do not proliferate in my garden, I would kill them also if I saw them, but I would not use spray.

The best defense against harmful spiders is to keep a clean garden. In the garden, black widows can be found most frequently in dry hidden places such as lidded wooden boxes, dry irrigation boxes, wooden furniture that’s under cover, woodpiles, planks, empty flower pots, inside dry garden ceramic ornaments, and under patio furniture cushions. Brown recluse spiders are fewer here than in the Deep South and Kentucky. They are only found inland in Southern California. Bites are infrequent but should be treated. These spiders also hide in cracks and crevasses. Before my great-grandchildren visit my garden or if I’m expecting guests I put on a pair of disposable or leather gloves and brush and check over my garden furniture and cushions. My favorite dusting method is to hit the pillows on a table. I also brush under wooden tables benches and chairs with a broom. If I find any black widows I squash or step on them. I sometimes find lizards under my pillows also and have even found tree frogs, though we have few these days. God forbid anyone should sit on these beneficial creatures! I have gotten rid of any wood piles or similar things that would attract black widows.

Also, long ago I designated a special out-of-the way spot for keeping empty flower pots. Smaller ones are arranged on shelves on the outer wall of my garden shed, under the eaves. Larger ones are neatly arranged on a platform out of sight behind the shed. I insist on having all empty pots kept upside down so water cannot collect inside them bringing mosquitos. If I ever notice an empty flower pot in my garden of any size I tell my gardener to put it where it goes. My trash area also is fenced off and it is in a special place by the road, with an arbor overhead but it has never attracted my grandchildren or great grandchildren to explore it. They love wandering around on the paths but since we keep a clean garden, all the spiders there are beneficial ones.

The webs you are seeing on creeping fig may not be the webs of spiders. They may be spider mites, little red spider-like arachnids that can suck the juice out of plants and turn leaves white, stippled or colorless. If I were you I would wash off your creeping fig with water from the hose before your granddaughter’s visits. I would also brush it daily with the broom, thus getting rid of the webs. Try to keep your creeping fig cut back so that you will have the juvenile foliage that sticks tight to the wall and not the rank stuff that takes over and grows massive. Additionally, I would brush off your outdoor furniture and the play equipment with a broom as I have described. You might be able to find an old wisk broom or have the fun of making one out of strong twigs and a light old broom handle. This kind works best. A long-handled feather duster can also work. After use, wash off the duster or wisk broom with water from the hose to make sure no spiders are caught inside.

Here are additional suggestions: Purchase a good handbook on spiders so that you can easily recognize the good and the bad. I will mention here a couple of good kinds I would never harm if I were you. I once taught my children and grandchildren and now teach my great grandchildren to respect and love the many good, beautiful and fascinating spiders. It is a good idea to show them which are the bad kinds too. Two years of age is not too young to begin but without instilling fear, only knowledge and fascination. Among my favorites among the harmless and beneficial spiders are the orb weaver spiders of which there are many types and species and also the wolf spiders. The orb weavers make huge webs that are particularly lovely when dew gathers on them. These spiders and their webs become ever larger in autumn. I break these webs if they cross my entryway walk but otherwise I leave them undisturbed and enjoy watching and marveling at the great works and lovely colors of these enterprising creatures and their gorgeous webs that catch flying insect pests on the wing.

The wolf spider is the one who inhabits garden flowers. It makes no web but instead hides inside a zinnia flower, for example, then leaps out and catches pests, such as aphids when and if they appear. Inside a red zinnia the wolf spider will be red and inside a yellow flower the wolf spider will turn yellow. I find these very beautiful. A third fascinating spider is the trap-door spider that makes holes in the ground with a camouflaged trapdoor at the bottom of a slippery cone-shaped entryway that unwary pests slide down into so they can be quickly caught be this effective predator.

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