Ladybugs to the Rescue!



Aphid damage to Butterfly Bush

Our ladybugs arrived over the weekend alive and well (despite being put in the mailbox by the postman even though in big bold letters on the front of the box read DO NOT PUT IN ENCLOSED MAILBOX). They came in two packs if 1500, the first of which we released Saturday evening. We will wait about a week I think before releasing the second group. We spread them around the yard, heavily concentrating on areas already infected with the aphids. Hopefully they will help. It was a lot of fun setting them free. They were crawling all over Andrew. After we got them all out of the mesh bag they came in, I had to start picking them off of him, and placing them on leaves or in the grass. I took a picture, but Andrew made me swear not to post one of him.  When I told my mom about ordering them, she was surprised that I actually had to buy ladybugs. "Do you know how prevalent ladybugs are in this area!", but then my dad commented that he hadn't really seen any, and it got me thinking. Usually they are everywhere. They are usually crawling up and down the screen porch at my parents house, and we almost always find them on the windowsills at our. They are very common in this area. Maybe they lack of ladybugs helped fuel our aphid problem. With less predators, their population exploded.I wonder what happened to our ladybugs?