The Danger of Overlooking Beneficial Insects

There is a proverb that says “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

Never is this more true than at the field level, nestled deep in the crop canopy, where beneficial insects are hard at work killing and eating crop pests. The tricky part, however, is that these beneficial insects can look a whole lot like pests. What’s more, beneficial insects can and do keep pest populations in check, but it won’t happen in one day as it will with an application of insecticide.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend — Arabian Proverb

In this video from Farm Tech 2013, Jeremy Hummel, instructor at Lethbridge College, discusses not just why beneficial insects are important, but why it’s so key to be able to identify pests and their predators. Understanding the life cycle of predators also will help in your decision of if and when to spray while minimizing the damage to these helpful insect populations.

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