The Urban Pantheist

Franklin Park Zoo has a new organic garden project, with the goal of growing produce that can be fed to the zoo animals, using compost from the zoo animals, and with no pesticide use. The horticulture director asked me to look around and to help identify insects and train volunteers to tell beneficial insects from pests.


These guys are definitely not beneficial. They've stripped the leaves of this viburnum bush almost completely bare. It took me some time to identify them, since they look rather caterpillar-like. I thought perhaps they were sawfly larvae, which can resemble caterpillars. Knowing the host plant is very helpful, and I soon stumbled across the viburnum leaf beetle Pyrrhalta viburni


These European beetles have been in North America for 60 years or so, and have become a serious pest of Viburnum. Hopefully we can convince local songbirds or assassin bugs to eat them.


Alongside the garden there are many weeds, most of which are being left alone, with the exception of a few especially noxious plants. This slender speedwell Veronica filiformus doesn't seem to be causing any problems, and its little flowers may attract early pollinators to visit the garden.