Just when we thought that we were on the losing side in our battle against the Green Army we've discovered that a new ally has arrived: The Parasitic Wasp Battalion!
These guys are dire enemies of aphids and actively seek them out. However, this isn't a buffet for the wasps but more a doggy bag for their unborn offspring. The wasps inject their eggs into the aphids and essentially use them as an incubator and creche. The egg grows inside the aphid, eats its way out, and then flies off to commit the same gruesome act on aphids of it's own choosing. Apparently each wasp is capable of parasitically impregnating up to 200.
Now we've also noticed as you may have seen from our last post on the Green Army that we had a good mixture of green and brown aphids. Well it now seems that the majority of our aphids are now brown and these seem to be the ones that have been impregnated by the wasps.
So if you see squadrons of small black wasps crawling and flying round your plants and looking rather interested in your aphid colonies then take heart for your allies have come to the call of battle.
