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Have bugs taken over your garden patch? Send away for ladybugs to get rid of them without pesticides.
(This is less a set of instructions and more a set of tips for getting and using live ladybugs in your garden.)
(This is less a set of instructions and more a set of tips for getting and using live ladybugs in your garden.)
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One summer I had a container garden on the balcony of my apartment. Most of the plants were bug-free all summer, with the exception of my bell pepper plant. Pepper plants, it turns out, are exceptionally attractive to aphids, and my poor plant was no exception. Rather than kill the aphids with some sort of toxic pesticide, I decided to investigate using ladybugs.
Turns out ladybugs can be purchased online relatively inexpensively. I purchased about 1000 of the critters for about $11. A simple google search turns up websites that will sell them even cheaper (between $5 and $10).
The ladybugs that I purchased came in a sack stored inside a box. They were kept very cold on their journey to my house in order to keep them inactive. Once they started to warm up the bag start to wiggle.
To actually use the ladybugs once you have them, simply tip the bag out onto the effected plant. 1000 ladybugs is probably overkill for one plant, but I couldn't find them sold in smaller quantities. Your local garden store might be able to sell you a smaller amount.
The ladybugs will live on your plant, eating all the inappropriate aphids and generally making the plant healthier. Don't worry about the ladybugs sticking around too long -- as soon as the available food source dries up (ie. the aphids) the ladybugs will fly away.
Turns out ladybugs can be purchased online relatively inexpensively. I purchased about 1000 of the critters for about $11. A simple google search turns up websites that will sell them even cheaper (between $5 and $10).
The ladybugs that I purchased came in a sack stored inside a box. They were kept very cold on their journey to my house in order to keep them inactive. Once they started to warm up the bag start to wiggle.
To actually use the ladybugs once you have them, simply tip the bag out onto the effected plant. 1000 ladybugs is probably overkill for one plant, but I couldn't find them sold in smaller quantities. Your local garden store might be able to sell you a smaller amount.
The ladybugs will live on your plant, eating all the inappropriate aphids and generally making the plant healthier. Don't worry about the ladybugs sticking around too long -- as soon as the available food source dries up (ie. the aphids) the ladybugs will fly away.
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Ladybugs hibernate in groups of thousands and even millions over the winter- normally in caves and hollow logs up in the mountains, and this is why they flock to our warm houses and buildings in the fall. This is also how the organic pest control industry collects them: they search for huge congregations of ladybugs and bag them up and refrigerate them for the winter. When you buy ladybugs, the instructions tell you to keep `em in the fridge until spring, when you release them into your garden. This simulates the end of their hibernation. Seems perfect, right?
The problem is that ladybugs coming out of hibernation are hard wired to do exactly one thing: Fly away. Their instinct is to fly far and wide over the countryside, then settle down and find a mate. Remember, they used to be piled up by the millions in some remote area. They need to spread out or they'll be competing against each other. They've saved up a couple weeks worth of fat to do exactly that; and some entomologists estimate ladybugs can fly several dozen miles before settling down! Once they settle down, they will get to work- no doubt. If you think the ladybugs are voracious, you should see how effective their larva are. It's the larva you really want in your garden.
Here's how to get them: Don't immediately release your ladybugs into your garden, release them into a screen cage or supported mesh bag of some sort our of direct sunlight and let them fly around in that enclosure for a couple weeks. They won't need to eat, but they will need to drink, so put a few soaked paper towels in with `em. Let them fly around to their little heart's content and burn off all that winter-stored fat and THEN release them into your garden! You won't have a scale, thrips, mealybug, aphid all summer. In addition, you won't attract the ants that farm the aphids, either. It beats the pants off any pesticides you can buy!
Good luck gang!
Cheers! -Jim
i got some ladybugs once, and had no instructions.
there was not a single ladybug left the next day.
At my parent's house the infestation of these creatures begins in late September and does not trickle off until May. On any warm day in between, literally thousands of these creatures come creeping and flying out of every little crack in the woodwork. In large numbers, they smell terrible.
When ordering creatures, especially 1000 of them, please keep in mind that the effects may be further-reaching than originally intended.
I can also say that, at least in southern Michigan where I live, most of them are a color halfway between spicy mustard and rust, whereas all the native 'true' ladybugs are (were?) bright red. But I have not seen a red one in 10 years here.