LOL, do they eat japanese beetles? If so where do I order me some ;-)

they eat any bug in sight! what I have most of is sow bugs, earwigs, and fruit flies - they snap'em up before you can blink - SO found some kind of beetle and put it in the food dish and one of'em ran over and downed it in one gulp - they're pheasants of some kind that she saw as chicks at the farm supply, and feeling motherly, bought some

so far the only veg stuff they've been interested in is dead leaves [where I suspect there's small insects] and tiny cherry tomatoes - don't seem at all attracted to the bigger ones, and as long as they've got bugs, not too interested in foliage, tho they do like cabbage - remains to be seen how they act when the bugs are all gone, which I think has almost happened!!

Bill

hmmm... I don't have a greenhouse to contain them in so I will need some bird that doesn't mind a leash ;-) Serously though your friend might be onto something. For those folks who raise doves or pigeons perhaps there is some merit in allowing them to access one's gardens. I suspect they will eat the beneficials right along with the baddies, but in the absence of baddies I guess the beneficials aren't all that neccesary anyway. At a minimum they could be unleashed when the baddies were winning a battle. Doubt they would do much about mites and aphids, but could be wrong.

Definitely on to something. I read a book about a guy who farms in Virginia. He has chickens in his fields to follow up and dig out the parasites from cattle dung. He says the chickens are worth their weight in pesticides (which he no longer uses). Even if the coyotes and owls ate every chicken, he says he'd replace them the next day.

Owls eat chickens? Holy Cow, I didn't realize that.

I think the pheasants might do a number on aphids - they sure can hit fruitflies, which move much faster than aphids, and are always around once there's overripe cherry toms - the beneficials aren't too common in the greenhouse, where sowbugs really are a problem in spring, so I'm warming up to the idea! :) just hafta keep'em out while the plants are young as they wander around walking on anything down low

Bill

Those are pheasants?
I used to let my 2 anoles (cheap green lizards) run loose in the summer until fall. I'd let crickets go once a week as the anoles were much too thorough. They would always escape right before I'd bring them in for winter. So of course they'd die. Praying mantids were cool too, though they'd eat each other once they had nothing of good size to eat.

I'm surprised more people don't use anoles in greenhouses.
Cheap, almost invisible and they eat a lot.