African Wildlife & Environment Issue 77 FINAL ISSUE

FAUNA, FLORA & WILDLIFE

the vicinity are eliminated and the pests multiply uncontrollably. A vicious cycle is created, so that the more poison you use, the more pests you’ll have and the more poison you’ll need. Of course, none of this is mentioned on the poison packet. No matter how much poison you use, you will never eliminate all the pests. There will always be more to invade your predator-free garden almost immediately from elsewhere.

Praying mantids devour a large number of insects in relation to their size Photograph: C. Botha

Indigenous vegetation is optimal in providing for garden wildlife and in general local plants will not be destroyed by indigenous insects as they evolved together. Planting FOR the insects is a totally different mind-set to one of using poisons, and not only gives watching garden wildlife another dimension, but also creates even more bird buffets.

Even the 'friendliest' of remedies will harm the small predators, usually located close to, or often among, the areas 'infected' by their prey. For example, the larvae of hover flies are often found among aphids, of which they consume large quantities. If you have a garden where all the predators have been eliminated, then there will be a frustrating period waiting for them to return after you stop using poisons. But for the patient environmentally friendly gardener, the natural balance will eventually be restored and major infestations of pests will be short-lived. Because we have not used any poisons whatsoever in our Durban garden, not even the supposed 'environmentally-friendly' ones, for over three decades, we have an abundance of predatory insects. These, together with the birds, ensure that we have no problem at all with the usual garden pests such as aphids, ants, cutworms, crickets, caterpillars, etc. Some imported pests, like mealy bugs, are promptly removed by hand, but absolutely no indigenous creature is ever killed. Suspended from their front legs, usually in thick vegetation or long grass, hangingflies catch passing insects with their other legs Photograph: C. Botha

Sand wasps lay their eggs on prey such as flies, grasshoppers, caterpillars and crickets, which they place in a burrow. If the prey is, for example, a poisoned cutworm then the little wasps won’t survive. Photograph: V. Dench

20 | African Wildlife & Environment | Issue 77 (2020)