Every year around this time, we release ladybugs. This year, we were having a hard time finding them. Everywhere we went had just sold out. But we finally found some at the Elliot’s Hardware booth at the Living Green Expo in Plano. I really could have used them a few weeks earlier, but hopefully my roses will forgive me. The primary food source of ladybugs is aphids.
Ladybugs are one of the best beneficial insects you can have in your garden. You should definitely encourage them – or even buy some and release them. If you release some and they all disappear, you have either been using pesticides or you have such a wonderfully organic garden that they have gone else where for food. The birds won’t eat them because the have a chemical that makes them taste bad. That happens a lot with orange or red insects.
Did you know that a female ladybug will lay more that 1000 eggs in her lifetime? And those eggs will eventually become the ‘aphid lion,’ which is the larval stage of the ladybug. The aphid lion has an even more voracious appetite than the adult ladybug! For more fun facts about ladybugs, you can check at The Ladybug Kid.
