I’m not the only one busy in the garden. My helpers, wasps and hornets, are out there too.
Most people look at wasp and hornets as enemies, but in the garden they can be a real help by killing insect pests. Yesterday I spotted a wasp on a broccoli leaf holding a cabbage worm caterpillar it had just captured. The wasp had stung the worm to kill it and was getting ready to fly back to its nest. Wasps and hornets use chewed-up caterpillars and other insects to feed young larvae.
This hornet is gathering wood from my garden shed to use as raw materials for building it's paper nest.
I was happy to see this wasp helping out in my garden. Not only was it harvesting insects from the garden but it also reminded me that there were still plenty of caterpillars around.
I need to do something soon before the cabbage worms do anymore damage my broccoli. The biological insecticide Bacillus thuringensis is a good choice. It kills caterpillars but is harmless to benificial insects like wasps and hornets.
Bob