Lacewings
Green lacewings are delicate fliers whose larvae, the aphid lions, rank among the most effective predators in the garden. These guides cover identification, life cycle, and how to attract them.
Quietly one of the best hunters you can host. The larvae, called aphid lions, clear soft-bodied pests by the hundred, so leave them be.
Size
6 to 20 mm
wings longer than the body
Species
Around 1,300
green lacewings worldwide
Diet
Aphids, mites, thrips
the larvae do the hunting
Habitat
Gardens and meadows
adults drift to porch lights
Larva
A spiny aphid lion
the real pest control
Life cycle
Four stages, and the second one does all the pest control.
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Egg Laid on fine silk stalks above the leaf, which keeps the hatchlings from eating each other first.
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Larva The spiny aphid lion. It spends two to three weeks eating aphids almost without pause.
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Pupa A small round silk cocoon tucked under a leaf while it rebuilds.
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Adult Pale green, net-veined wings, golden eyes. It sips nectar and drifts toward lights.
Nobody plants a garden hoping for lacewings, yet growers buy the eggs by the thousand for a reason. I watched one larva work its way down a rose stem and clear it, and the name aphid lion stopped sounding like an exaggeration. Those pale green adults drifting toward your window on a summer night are the same insect, and most people never connect the two.
Sam Fielding · field note · about Sam
Typical season
Adults from spring through fall, in several overlapping generations where it stays warm.
A single lacewing larva can eat 200 aphids in the two or three weeks before it pupates, which is why growers buy the eggs by the thousand.