Sidewalk Greenspace on New York's Upper West Side
These bright-yellow oleander aphids are growing fat and plentiful on the sap of a dogbane plant. In agricultural settings, aphids are almost universally viewed as a pest, but I’m pleased to see them here in our tiny habitat, because I know they’re a favorite food for ladybugs and other insectivores whose numbers will be growing in the coming weeks.
There are a handful of these paper wasps visiting the garden this week; they’re hunting through the leaf litter for insects to massacre and bring back to the hive, where they will be shared with the queen and brood.
These tiny carnivores will help keep other insects from multiplying out of control, and both will in turn provide food for birds. It’s part of the natural cycle, so I’m happy to have it playing out here on our sidewalk.
Just as the plants are springing back into life, so are the insects that feed on them.
A number of the tiny elm trees espaliered into the fence have numerous leaves covered by tiny sack galls. Inside each is some type of insect, although I’m not certain whether they are aphids or mites. The result is somewhat unsightly, but reportedly doesn’t do significant damage to the plant.
More concerning is the invasive spotted lanterfly, which for the first time I have spotted in nymph form. The fact that these are black rather than red indicates they are a still at an early instar; they will turn red when they molt in a few weeks, and then assume their winged adult form later in the summer. They love to suck the sap from newly growing grapevines, and I’ll need to put some effort into limiting their population so they don’t do too much damage.
The spotted lanternfly is back again, and in larger numbers than last year — I’ve seen five in the last 36 hours, and only managed to kill two of them.
Please be on the lookout and do your best to kill them on sight, before they damage our trees and garden plants.
The burdock flowers also draw a crowd of bees; these ones are European honey bees.
Another reason I like burdock is that it supports a lot of insects. A week ago, I noticed that seemingly overnight, the undersides of the flower clusters had been swarmed by hundreds of aphids. I pulled out the hose and blasted a bunch of them off with a few quick squirts, but that only thins them out, it never gets ’em all, so I was very pleased to find a couple of ladybugs crawling around on it the next day. Although they’re cute, I know they’re fiends for aphids.
And even better, by the end of the week I was seeing ladybug larvae crawling around, clearing out the lingering aphids. A few days later, I can no longer find any aphids at all.
Last week I turned over a rock in a sidewalk treebed and this little earwig scuttled out looking for a new burrow.
I just killed a second Spotted Lantern Fly less than 24 hours after the first, so I’ve nailed its carcass to my garden gate as a warning to others.
(Well, that was my original plan, but I switched to tape because I don’t think a nail would’ve worked very well.)
