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Critter on a Flower

Erin Galbraith
Latest posts by Erin Galbraith (see all)

“I love this photo of a large crab spider on a brightly colored zinnia flower, with its crown of yellow and cheerful pink petals. The dichotomy of beauty and a dangerous predator struck me. This photo also represents a paradigm shift in my garden.

At first my new raised flower beds were populated solely by cucumber beetles and a handful of honeybees. The leaves were brown, and all of my flowers were full of holes. I saw no sign of the native pollinator and predator diversity I observe in my long-established pollinator garden, existing in its own world no more than 60 feet away.

Then everything changed. The spiders and ambush bugs came! Bumblebees, hummingbirds, butterflies, docile solitary wasps, and native bees! The diabrotica slowly vanished as the ecosystem righted itself. The flowers outgrew their insect damage without any intervention from me. That almost magical change happened at the very time I took this photograph.”