Ladybug House (Updated)

My girlfriend and I have a vegetable garden, and we have succeeded thus far in making it chemical free, and as organic as possible. The only real problem we've encountered is our peppers and eggplants are getting eaten by aphids. Hopefully this will succeed in getting rid of them and other small insects that might be eating our plants.

Step 1 Materials

I used 1x8s for the wood, some hinges and small screws.

Comments

[stick0]

question is is this helping the invasive non-native species or our age old almost extint native species?

[Laisseraller]

I like the art work on the house but the design is not focused on the species, it leave a perch for bird some with eat ladybugs.  New blog giving more information on Ladybugs it called "Hx. of the Ladybug"

http://historyoftheladybug.blogspot.com/

[Troy (Firgelli Automations)]

You've got to watch out for the ants as well, they'll protect the aphids..

[oh_burnz]

I run a conventional orchard.. Troy is right about ants, they will even overwinter aphid eggs in their nests, bringing them out to start up their little farms, usually on lower leaves, in the spring. Aphid populations will explode as soon as juicy young green tips are available, the best thing you can do is search early on new growth, on the underside of leaves and then continue to knock back the population, which-ever method you use. if it gets established, the aphid population will curl up leaves and generally become more difficult to control.

[A good name]

You know this reminds me of a story (true story)... I had been out in my garden, and I noticed a tiny bug struggling in the pond. I went up to it and saw it was a ladybug. I plucked it out of the pond, and put it on a bean plant leaf in the sun to let itself dry. After that, I got a ton of ladybugs coming to my garden... unfortunately though, they weren't very productive at aphid eating, as the aphids ended up destroying my corn crop...

[dreamexplorer]

I just had aphids move in on my tomatoes so I'll have to investigate this; I don't like to spray even if it's organic since it affects the plant's transpiration. I've been blasting them off with water in the meantime which seems more effective than I had expected. Nice instructable!

[kcmessenger]

I beleive ladybugs are attracted to Marigolds also, I plant several near my gardens each year for aphids.

[TimBTodd]

Good point, we have Marigolds in our garden as well.