Ladies and gentlemen, may I present the unsung beetle. We share the planet with over 400,000 species of beetles. (For perspective, there are only 50,000 animals with backbones: fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals combined.) In fact, according to Berkeley entomologist Jerry Powell, beetles make up “almost 25% of all known life-forms.” How many kinds […]
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Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider her ways and be wise: Which, having no chief, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the summer, [and] gathereth her food in the harvest. –Proverbs 6:6-6:8 Scripture praises ants, children are mesmerized by them, and yet ants in the garden are so commonplace as to be easily
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Of all the potential insect visitors gardeners may encounter, perhaps none has more charisma than the praying mantis. “The ultimate insect assassin” is how famed British filmmaker David Attenborough describes it. You can forgive Sir David a bit of hyperbole when you realize that this is the only insect in the world with a martial
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