This book is about the wildlife we should welcome into the yard and garden, what they do that is beneficial, and how to attract them. It tells about soil microorganisms, earthworms, beetles, wasps, moths, various types of flies, true bugs, ants, lacewings, spiders centipedes, and lots lots more. Also some brief sections on bats, birds, amphibians and reptiles. It was all very brief. There were a ton of different creatures mentioned in the book, but I know it barely touched on what’s really out there. And just when I felt like it was starting to get into interesting details about any one species’ life cycle, feeding methods, etc- it would promptly move on. So even though I had difficulty staying focused on this book as a whole and often returned to my easier reading, I also felt a bit disappointed in it. Or at least, I wanted to go read more on all the individual topcis, like a whole book just about the ants, for example.
A lot of the advice for all the beneficials is much the same: provide habitat, leave some leaf litter, don’t use poisons. Hesitate and learn more before you reactively kill something. Let the natural predators show up to be your control. Although for slugs and snails (most which are not native I learned), he had no compunctions about offering deadly methods to reduce their numbers.
Some things I did learn: stink bugs do have a predator- the feather-legged (tachnid) fly. Adults wasps feed on nectar. The fairy-fly wasp mymarid chalcid is smaller than a pinhead. Early flowering perennial grasses are good to support beetles and others. Yet some things baffled me a bit. I’d always read that eucalyptus (not native here) is anathema to wildlife, that no birds will use it. But he talks about red-tailed hawks nesting in one. And says that because beetles consume seed, they can be considered predators because they’re preventing something living from continuing to be alive and grow. What? Nobody calls a plant-consuming animal a predator- is that because herbivores usually eat part of the plant, and the rest continues to grow? but if they eat a seed, the total life is done. Well, I’m confused.
Borrowed from the public library.
