FRIENDS & FOES IN THE GARDEN

- September 13, 2024

FRIENDS & FOES IN THE GARDEN

LT COL NOEL ELLIS

13/IX/2024

A friend of mine asked me about “friendly and not so friendly garden insects”. To do justice to her query, instead of just covering insects, I would discuss reptiles & birds too and restrict myself to the ‘Ellis’ Garden’.

Many insects are ugly to look at and some can cause a lot of destruction, to the extent plants die. Some good-looking ones are the ‘Butterflies’. They come in various shapes, sizes, and colours. From tiny ones to huge ones, from black, orange to white ones. Some are spotted and some come with ‘bandhani’ prints.

Their main aim is to drink nectar in their short life span. They pick up pollen and spread the genes to other flowers by carrying that powder on its feet. Pollination is the most important cycle in plant life.

Now comes the bad part. These butterflies lay their eggs on selected plants. They love citrus plants. Why? Maybe, there are better hiding places. Birds and predators are not able to spot their tiny eggs easily. Maybe, the leaves provide shade and a sun screen. The most important factor is food.

Once the eggs grow into caterpillars, they look like tiny ‘blackish dragons’ with an appetite of a glutton. A single wriggly-wiggly can chomp off many leaves. At present our citrus plants are without any leaves. Those blackish creatures turned into bright green caterpillars who kept eating every leaf of the plant. Today, they are in ‘pupa’ stage and new butterflies are about to emerge. My wife kept telling me to get rid of them but I let them be for two reasons.

Their droppings are like adding organic DAP to the plant. Also, they trimmed the plant so well that new shoots have already started to emerge.

Similarly, the ‘Moths’. What the butterflies do in the day, they do the same at night. It is at daybreak they come to take refuge and hide amongst the plants. Most of them are harmless and are part of the garden’s cycle.

Bees are a boon for pollination. Wasps look nasty and their sting is deadly. Besides the flowers, they would swarm our fish ponds and water bowl for birds for a sip and a dip. We let them be.

Grasshoppers, Praying Mantis, and Crickets too visit our garden. They are ‘singers’ of our garden. They too munch on leaves, catch an insect or two and act as nature's insect eliminator. We let them hop around.

A grasshopper called the ‘Locust’, commonly found in the desert is an issue. It is a voracious eater and can even eat stems. Locust causes irreparable destruction and has to be gotten rid off pronto. Within minutes, a plant can be reduced to a skeleton.

Birds are always welcome. Doves, Sparrows, Bulbuls, Hummingbirds, Koel, Tailor birds, Seven Sisters, Maynah, Treepie, Parrots, Crows, Green Pigeons etc are visitors everyday. Droppings of the Common Grey Pigeon are acidic, which kill flora quickly.

Birds are pollinators, nectar collectors and insect removers. They also remove dry grasses/twigs as nesting material. We have grown cotton plants, just to make nests of birds and squirrels comfier, like cushiony Dunlop mattress’.

Earthworms, Millipedes, and other creepy crawlies are natural cultivators. They make vermicompost for free. Then, they aerate the soil by ploughing and tilling the mud and letting air pass through, saving the effort for hoeing. They are a gardener’s greatest friends.

Now come the ugly ones called the ‘Slugs. They are ‘dead foliage’ eaters. If they are present, it means the soil is good. Slugs leave a sticky silverish trail wherever they travel. People mistake them for ‘leeches’ or ‘jonk’. They do not eat leaves, so I let them be.

Chameleons are the best ‘insect killers’. They can hunt cockroaches, butterflies, bees, and even small birds. This keeps the insect population under check. ‘Girgit’ becomes food for Koels, Kingfishers and Treepies and so do lizards, which keep mosquitoes and house flies under check.

Then we have the really bad insects called ‘Mealy Bugs (White) and Aphids (Black). Mealy bugs are small insects with sweet powdery coatings. They are nasty plant killers and can ‘guillotine’ a plant very fast. Rainy season is the time to keep a close look on and behind the leaves. Anything white could be a mealy bug. Both need to be taken care of without delay.

Insects, reptiles, and birds should be part of any garden. People get worked up seeing an earthworm or a millipede calling it a ‘Saanp’ or a ‘Kaan Khajura’. Leave them alone.

One has to be proactive and keep inspecting plants on a regular basis. The biggest plant killer as per our experience is ‘over watering’. Rest all can be controlled.

Hope my friend finds this write up relevant? What says you? I wonder!!!!!!!

JAI HIND