Keys to Building a Ladybug Garden
November 17th, 2009 Posted in Beetles & Ladybugs
We at EcoSMART have long touted the use of ladybugs for defending your garden from pests. The big question is, how do you get them there?
Ladybugs can be bought at most local gardening stores, but that’s only a small step to protecting your garden.
There are multiple steps to getting an efficient ladybug garden:
Identifying Ladybugs
Ladybug Classification is usually pretty simple.
Ladybugs are generally a red or orange color with black spots, but some ladybugs are yellow or even black.
Ladybug spots aren’t known to have a specific meaning, and each ladybug has a different number of spots. Spots fade away as the ladybug gets older. Ladybugs’ wings are hidden under their colorful shell.
Ladybugs, like all insects, have 6 six legs and multiple body parts.
Attracting Ladybugs
Drawing ladybugs to your garden is where a lot of the difficulty lies in making a ladybug-protected garden.
Ladybugs are most drawn to the one thing you don’t want in your garden, aphids and other plant-eating insects.
However, that is not the only thing you need to attract ladybugs. A huge part of drawing and maintaining ladybugs is pollen. Plants like dill, dandelions, yarrow, wild carrots, and scented geraniums are particular tastes that titillate ladybug taste buds.
Lacking a high number of these types of plants will cause ladybugs to leave your garden.
Using certain insecticides will kill off ladybug larvae, which probably not what you want to do. Ladybugs are natural pest eaters and greatly reduce the need for the chemicals.
Purchasing Ladybugs
Ladybugs can be obtained easily. Most gardening stores will sell ladybugs for gardens.
Take caution with the ladybugs you purchase. Most commercially fed ladybugs aren’t able to survive in the wild, so if you order them off the internet or from a store, make sure they actually know how to hunt.
Purchased ladybugs are best released in the morning or evening, as they use the sun to navigate.
Keeping bought ladybugs on ice will help keep them around. Ladybugs can survive in a refrigerator overnight, and the cool temperatures make them less likely to fly, so they’ll crawl around on your plants.
In Addition
Having a ladybug garden is very beneficial to your plants. Keeping them around will limit the aphid damage in your garden.
On a special note, beware of buying Asian ladybugs. Though they are just as effective in hunting garden pests as any other ladybug, these beetles don’t deal well with the cold weather of winter.
Asian ladybugs are the beetles you will likely find coming into your house during the fall. Other species of ladybugs will hibernate under dead leaves or bark. Asian ladybugs prefer your house.
