Lacewings are one of the UKs favourite insects and rightly so. Even for the squeamish the beauty of a lacewing is impossible to deny. Common Green Lacewings are one of the 43 species of British lacewings.

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Our common green lacewing is a very pretty, delicate looking creature as an adult. Its transparent green-veined wings are almost twice the length of its abdomen and its delicate head is adorned with large golden eyes and long delicate antennae. Green lacewings can sometimes take on a blue hue and are attractive looking creatures.  The adults feed only on nectar, pollen and honeydew, but their offspring are voracious predators of a range of garden pests.

Lacewing larvae hunt a wide range of prey and are not adverse to eating their own kind so the genus has developed a way of safeguarding their unhatched eggs from the unwanted attention of their siblings – they lay their eggs on stilts. A female lacewing deposits each one of her eggs at the top of a strand of mucus which hardens in the air, and in this way the egg is held up on a stalk, out of the way of the hungry larvae as they hatch. These larvae are fierce and hungry little things, and are the reason lacewings are a gardener’s best friend. Each little grub can consume up to 200 aphids or greenfly a week over the two or three weeks of their larval stage and will also happily munch their way through mealybugs, spider mites, leafhopper nymphs, caterpillar eggs, scales, thrips, and  whiteflies and even full size caterpillars.

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The larvae, which have earned themselves the well-deserved title of ‘aphid lions’,  are about 4mm when born and grow to about 13mm just before they pupate by which time they resemble little dragons with spines along their backs and fierce little nipping jaws which they put to very good use. These aphid lions have developed a cunning little trick to evade the ants that so often protect colonies of aphids, by removing the fluff that coats the back of the aphids and putting it on their own backs as camouflage or by putting the dried out husks of their victims on their backs.  They feast on their prey by injecting paralysing venom into the prey and then sucking out their liquefied flesh.

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After a couple of weeks the lacewing larvae have fed up and they spin themselves a cocoon ready to pupate, emerging from these papery cocoons after 10 to 14 days. The length of the life-cycle is very dependent on temperature and will take a lot longer if the weather is cold.

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Upon emerging from the cocoon the adults will look for a mate. Upon finding a member of the opposite sex they seal the deal by perform a mating ritual called tremulation – a sort of vibrating dance where they each vibrate their abdomens which makes the surface they are both standing on vibrate and together makes a low frequency noise.   This musical ritual is an essential precursor to mating. The female will then lay up to 200 eggs.

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Those lacewings which hatched later in the season will overwinter in a sheltered spot in the garden or countryside. During their overwintering period their pretty green colouring changes to a yellowish brown and little red spots can appear on their wings.

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The lacewing’s voracious appetite has earned it a place as a natural pest controller and you can buy lacewing eggs and larvae online to control pests in greenhouses and gardens.  Lacewings are often employed on a large scale to control pests on orchard crops.

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It is often difficult to maintain your own population of lacewings, as adults tend go off in search of nectar and pollen,  but by  providing nectar rich flowers and a collection of lacewing lodges in your garden (as they do in orchards) you could well encourage a permanent and thriving lacewing population on your patch.