Best of 2000: Best Bugs For Your Garden

American Insectaries
Escondido
(760) 751-1436
www.betterbugs.com

Forget the ladybugs. They're cute but most will immediately leave your property and head for the hills. Instead, Jim Davis recommends green lacewings for all-around pest control in the garden. The lacewings attack almost anything that moves, including the thrips that have been hurting local avocados. The lacewings don't work against the giant whitefly, but Davis, the county's only breeder of beneficial insects, is working on something that will. In the meantime, he sells lacewings in lots of 5000 via mail-order, along with mealybug destroyers, decollate snails, common ladybugs (for their diehard devotees), and a host of predacious mites and beneficial parasites.