Fun fact re: good garden bugs: CFAES’s Mary Gardiner has a book in the works on the topic, and with that very title. This week’s workshops on said bugs will tap into excerpts, photographs and illustrations from it. Want your own copy? It’s available now for preorder. (Photo: Quarry Books.)
beneficial insects
Good garden bugs, and how you can mutually benefit each other
The creatures 
are tiny. But the name of a workshop about them is … not quite as small as they are. “The Secret Lives of Good Garden Bugs and 2014 Buckeye Lady Beetle Blitz Volunteer Round-up,” led by CFAES’s Mary Gardiner and members of her lab, takes place today in Wooster (has already started; apologies), tomorrow near Cleveland and Friday in Cincinnati. The program is the same in all three locations. The focus is on arthropods that benefit gardens. You’ll also learn about, and can sign up to help with, two citizen-science research projects — one on native lady beetles, one on bee-healthy landscapes. (Photo: PhotoSpin.)
That’s no convergent lady beetle, that’s a Harmonia axyridis
“Many types of native lady beetles are declining in Ohio,” says CFAES scientist Mary Gardiner, “while the introductions of exotic non-native species of lady beetles are increasing. Lady beetles are a beneficial insect for gardeners and farmers because they provide natural pest control.” Here’s how you can pitch in to help Gardiner, native lady beetles, and the plants you grow. (Photo by Stu Phillips via Wikimedia Commons.)
Putting the b in sustainable
Related to our previous post: USDA’s Agricultural Research Service says bee pollination is responsible every year for more than $15 billion in increased crop value. And about one out of every three bites of food you eat has benefitted directly or indirectly from honey bee pollination.
Ways to bee sustainable
CFAES’s research arm, OARDC, hosts the largest educational beekeeping event of its kind in the U.S. March 1-2 in Wooster. The keynote talk, “Practical Natural Beekeeping,” is by University of Georgia honey bee researcher Jennifer Berry.