The Rose is a feature of many gardens with it large blooms of flowers with sweet fragrances, green leaves and thorny stems, but look closer and there is an ecosystem of insects that make the rose their home.
Many a gardener will know of the damage that certain of these insects can do to the plant and are not their favourates such as Aphids.
The Aphid comes in many different colours and are winged and wingless. Their lifecycle can be lived out on a rose plant overwintering as eggs and emergining in the spring.
If you have an Ants nest near by, the ants will be visiting the rose not to eat the aphids, but to farm them. Aphids live on the rose by sucking the liquids out of the rose and secrete a liquid called Honeydew. The ants use the Honeydew as food and farm the ants for it. Ants can be seen moving aphids around a rose or even to a different rose in the same way a farmer would move sheep or cattle from one field to another so they can feed on a fresh pasture of grass.
Nature is at hand to help keep the aphids under control with a set of preadators:
- Ladybirds
- Hoverfly larvae
- Lacewing larvae
- Midge larvae
- Parasitic wasps
- Ground and Rove Beetles
Have a look at the plants in your garden. What eco systems are in play?
Sparrowhawk Bushcraft 