Most of my garden is dedicated to
indigenous plants, but I have reserved a small area for food plants.
We have a little lemon tree “growing” in a pot. “Growing “
because in the 3 years we have had it I don't think it has gained
even 1cm. Every year it gets attacked by caterpillars that strip it
bare of all it's leaves and the poor thing then expends all it's
energy just trying to survive. This year when the caterpillars
appeared I was armed with my camera.
They start off looking like this, and
are known as Orange dogs, they are meant to resemble bird droppings
and thus not look like a tasty meal to any hungry birds.
As they grow they change into these big
fat green ones with beautiful markings. If you touch one it rears up
and 2 “horns” protrude out of it's head, again a defence
mechanism meant to ward off birds. Besides birds these caterpillars
also fall prey to wasps, who lay their eggs inside the caterpillar to
provide food for their young when they hatch.
The few that manage to survive all
these perils eventually emerge from their pupa as the beautiful
Citrus swallowtail butterfly.
Picture from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Papilio_demodocus_1.JPG)
Knowing this would be my reward I think
will justify my recent crazy behaviour. As I mentioned I was keeping
a close eye on the caterpillars and before work one morning I could
see that almost all the leaves were demolished on my little tree. I
had been browsing my books and the internet to find suitable
indigenous plant hosts, having identified a few I tried to find some
at our local nurseries – no luck. In desperation I sent my son to
buy another lemon tree, with instructions to carefully transplant the
hungry caterpillars. He told me that the nursery had offered to sell
him pesticide to control caterpillars – he wisely declined! The
next morning however when I went to look at their progress I could
only find 1 of the original 6. I found 2 lying dead on the ground –
then it struck me, the nursery must have treated the tree with their
terrible poison. I hastily washed off the leaves in an effort to save
the remaining caterpillar and I also found one starving little one on
the original tree. It has been fun and enlightening to watch their
progress, but alas both have since fallen prey to birds. With all
these natural predators I hardly think gardeners need to kill them
also, in most cases if your trees and shrubs are large and healthy
then most insect attacks will not cause any lasting damage, even my
little lemon is already sprouting new leaves.
Gardening to me is more than just
healthy looking plants, it's about a healthy ecosystem. that means
that caterpillars are important as they eventually become
butterflies. Even the spiders that venture into my house and have
occasionally joined me in the shower are carefully removed and
returned to the garden where they aid in the control of pests.
Rain Spider
Rain Spider nest
My daughter spotted this nest hanging
in the garden, a quick Google search identified it as the nest of the
rain spider. (Palystes castaneus) It takes the female about 3-5 hours
to construct this nest which is a little larger than a tennis ball,
she stays close to the nest until the spiderlings emerge about 3
weeks later. Although rather large and scary looking these spiders
are quite harmless. Mostly they confine themselves to the garden
where they go unnoticed, but occasionally in the rainy season they
will venture into the house. They do a wonderful job controlling
insects including cockroaches but they do unfortunately include the
occasional lizard or gecko in their diet as well.
Gecko
Next time you spot one of these don't
swat it, stop and look. It belongs to the family Mecoptera (Hanging
flies) and mosquitoes form a large part of their diet.
Another useful mosquito predator is the
dragonfly.
I think this one is known as a Blue
Emperor (Anax imperator) belonging to the Hawker (Aeshnidae) family
of dragonflies. This is the female busy laying eggs which are
actually inserted into aquatic plants.
I believe that every creature in my
garden serves a purpose and that if you destroy even one then you
upset the balance of nature and will ultimately pay the price. Taking
the time to learn about the creatures in the garden just adds to the
pleasure of gardening and also provides an invaluable learning
experience for my children.
