Minute pirate bug

How to recognise it

Very small, 2-3 mm, black-and-white patterned bug, fast-moving on flowers and leaves.

Mistaken for

Small enough to be assumed a pest and sprayed. It looks superficially like a young plant bug.

What it eats

Thrips, Red spider mite, Whitefly, Tomato leafminer, Aphids

How to attract it

Pollen-rich flowers, particularly alyssum, phacelia and flowering herbs; they feed on pollen when prey is scarce, which keeps them in the garden between outbreaks.

Plants that help

Phacelia, Coriander, Calendula, Dill

Lifecycle

Several generations a year. Both nymph and adult hunt.

Months: April, May, June, July, August, September

The thing people get wrong

This is the main natural check on thrips, and the reason flowering plants among your crops matter: Orius can live on pollen when there are no thrips, so the flowers keep the predator on site, waiting, for the moment the pest arrives.