Good bugs, bad bugs

I like ladybugs in my garden. I do not like the bugs I found on this grapevine today.

Grape leaf skeletonizers are voracious little caterpillars that do exactly what you might infer from their name. They are the larvae of an inconspicuous little blue-black moth that lays its eggs in clusters on the undersides of grape leaves, and start munching away as soon as they hatch. If you notice your grape leaves beginning to look like the ones in the picture on the right, look on the undersides of the affected leaves for tiny black-and-yellow striped caterpillars.

The best control we've found is Thuricide, a biological control agent containing live bacteria which will kill caterpillars, and only caterpillars. Some gardeners report successfully controlling them by hand-picking, but we found that very time-consuming as well as ineffective.

Buggy things

This year, as an experiment, I decided to let the cilantro go to seed. I doubt we will see many coriander seeds because finches have really been enjoying themselves, and I thought about pulling them up and planting something more attractive. I changed my mind this morning when I saw them covered with lady beetles in all stages of development! Here's what they look like, in case you aren't familiar with the larval or pupal forms:

I learned that cilantro, besides being good for bees, also attracts several kinds of beneficial insects. Here's an article (pdf format) about beneficial insects and how to attract them to your garden.