Ecosystem Services... sounds awfully like an Economical Job! 

Thank goodness it’s not an ecological gig: Ecosystem Services are the ecological contributions organisms make to the smooth running of our planet. 

Invertebrates, spiders, birds, trees, shrubs, fungi, whales, and insects, etc, do a variety of jobs that help us and all other creatures we share this Earth with. And we often forget about this! 

Pollination  

Without it, many of our plants, shrubs and trees won’t be able to reproduce. 

A third of everything you eat has had the services of a Honeybee (or Bumblebee) involved! Others such as hoverflies, native bees (28 species!), thrips, beetles, birds, and heaps of flies love to visit the flowers – we often seem to forget about these beautiful green flies, known as dung-flies! 

Photo / Getty Images 

Dolomedes Minor – The Clever Nursery Web Spider 

An endemic Spider Species that occurs only in New Zealand and are very clever in many ways. 

In late spring, the female is starting a web site on some grassy bit mixed with fine silk, that can hold a good, large piece of silken nursery. A couple of hundred juveniles or more grow bigger every time they change their external skin. 

When all juveniles come to the third skin development, the female spider knows it’s time to get the kids in the web site, where they can run about. This is also the time when mum chews quite visible holes into the edges of the nursery web – the juveniles know it’s time to find some food outside the silken website. It’s good food, and material that allows them to find some “Ballooning Silk”, which enables them to travel with the wind in all sorts of directions. Many, many kilometres without the use of petrol… 

Predators, Parasites, and Parasitoids 

In everybody’s garden you’ll find there are hundreds and hundreds of critters that will keep your plants, the grasses, and the gardens in perfect condition. 

As a Dutchman I could even use the term “in perfect condition and for FREE!” 

We often seem to overlook the presence of these free critters that clean the place on a regular context! 

Left to right: Giant Centipede, Alexander Beetle, Praying Mantis, Predator Mite 

Huge native centipedes are always tricky customers, especially in the northern parts of the North Island. They often hide in rotting logs and will come out when you least expect it, in the middle of the night. Yep I have been bitten by these rotters – no sense of humour! 

The large beetle (Alexander Beetle) is one of my favourite insects in the garden – fast moving, and easy to make themselves invisible! They’ll eat anything on their soils and once they grab your skin it’s not easy to get them off! But 100% Predators in your garden – they’re a brilliant creature to endorse. 

I love the Praying Mantis in our garden; their perfect way to find a food species helps you all the time. Keep a good eye on them as their eyesight is a fabulous way to get all the critters that cause troubles. 

If you’ve never seen these tiny Predator mites, this is your chance to learn how to get them in your Modus Operandus. Honestly, once you get what you are looking for, you’ll always win the game from spring right through to well into autumn. 

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