A Wealth of Wasps

                While mowing the lawn recently I noticed something white attached to grass blades.  It looked like the end of a cotton swab and was the same size.  The more I looked, the more of them I spotted.  My lawn was filled with hundreds of the small white cottony things.  An infestation.  My first thought was… this can’t be good. 

                My next response was … get the camera.  After getting a clear photo, I bagged a few samples in a sandwich bag and sealed it shut.  I thought of taking them to the extension office for identification.  In the meantime, I searched on line and found something similar looking in Minnesota – a scale disease.  That didn’t sound good.  Then my daughter-in-law found a similar photo on line which led to a site that described predatory wasps egg sacs.  That sounded better.  Images from both sites looked alike.  For a definitive answer I emailed photos to entomologists at Virginia Tech, my county extension office and a few other lucky recipients.  

                An expert from Virginia Tech responded with good news.  My cotton swab cocoons were indeed egg sacs containing wasps – from the Genus Apanteles.  “They will parasitize pests like the cutworms and armyworms ,“ he reassured me. 

                Meanwhile, on my kitchen counter, my plastic baggie of cocoons was suddenly filled with tiny ants.  Upon closer inspection, I noticed wings.  Baby wasps! I rushed the newborns outside and set them free.

                Remember my post about predatory wasps and the photo of the tomato hornworm with cocoons attached?  Or the potter wasp post?  Of course you do.  There are thousands of species of parasitic wasps, many of which are tiny.  Although many adult wasps feed on nectar, they lay their eggs inside live hosts such as caterpillars, armyworms, Japanese beetle larva and  other insects, mostly, but not all, garden pests.  When the eggs hatch, their considerate host provides a food source until the larvae mature into adult wasps.

                Now I am really glad I didn’t treat my lawn with any pesticides this spring.  I was tempted.   I considered doing so because of ticks and the underground food supply that makes my moles so healthy and active.  But I knew I couldn’t selectively kill only bad bugs without hurting the good bugs.  And now the payoff is – I have my own army of tiny parasitic wasps working for me.  I feel powerful.