I have these euphorbias (E. amygdaloides) in my front garden bed that get crippled by aphids every spring. Despite their aphid problem, they’re quite lovely, which is why I’ve kept them this long. (I’m not sure what variety of euphorbia they are; they are the developer’s last remaining contribution of my garden.) For the last two springs, I’ve used a homemade pest spray to deal with them. This year, I don’t have time to be vigilant with the spray bottle, so I decided to buy some ladybugs.
I’ve always wanted to try using ladybugs to control aphids. I’d heard mixed reports on their effectiveness (the main complaint being that they just flew away once released). Of course, I had to try it myself.
Considering that a single ladybug can eat 5,000 aphids in her lifetime, the bag of 250 I purchased from my local nursery was probably overkill for my small garden.
I
was curious: would they all just fly away, making a break for it as
soon as I opened the bag?
Keeping them refrigerated until use (it keeps them semi-dormant), I
released them after sundown (you can also do it before sunrise; they
navigate using the sun.) Following the instructions on the bag, I covered the euphorbia bed with an old sheet (it helps keep the ladybugs around long enough to figure out that there’s food to be had) and set the open bag in the garden underneath. Seconds later, they were on the move. Let me tell you: ladybugs are cute, but when they’re everywhere, it’s just creepy.
So, did it work? Well, the next morning, I couldn’t find a single aphid. I also couldn’t find most of the ladybugs: apparently they’d done the job and moved on, which was okay by me. Not all of them took off, however.
Would I do it again? Probably not. At $15 a bag, they’re effective, but relatively expensive. And I think I’m going to rip out those euphorbias after all. As Eric of Gardening in Converse commented on a recent post, “aphids won’t be a problem in healthy plants.
They may be present, but will only kill a plant that was asking for it…They have a definite place in this world as a weeder of bad
genes.” My euphorbias? Asking for it!
When I saw that bottle of mayo, I thought you’d found a recipe for them or something. ;) (Kudos for using low fat!) This is all very interesting…perhaps the ladybugs are just in hiding, waiting for the next course?
Before I read the caption under the first photo I wondered what ladybugs and mayonnaise had in common. And the second photo….nudge, nudge, wink, wink.
Thanks for describing the full technique in such an entertaining and helpful way. I thought you just released the little bugs into the wild and hoped they’d find the aphids on their own. I think containing them with a sheet is key.
Yes, $15 does sound costly for one treatment. But I think you probably earned some good gardening karma because I bet the little critters have moved onto your neighbours’ gardens and are doing their good work there.
By the way, Eric’s comment encouraged me to keep a closer eye on my plants and so far, I’ve kept the aphids under control (using the thumb-and-finger-pressure method).
There are many reasons why buying lady bugs for your garden is a bad idea. Just because something seems benign doesn’t mean that it is.
Thanks for the review! I’ve always wondered how well ladybugs worked!
Nancy – LOL. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if ladybugs aren’t a delicacy somewhere in the world.
Elaine – I did notice that there were many ladybugs doing their work in the Green Streets’ traffic circle I garden, so I think you’re right about the karma thing!
Max – thanks for the link to that interesting article. The company that makes the ladybugs I bought calls itself an insectary. I wonder now if that is the case… I also wonder why the article claims, “at the end of the week you will be left with not one living ladybug” – is that just their natural lifespan, or a result of the way they are harvested and sold? More research is needed…
Wendy – thanks! No sweat. :)
Thanks for the link love Andrea, and I am glad you are trying some things before giving up on your euphorbias. Perhaps a move is in order given space? There are so many things that can make a plant uncomfortable you just have to try stuff until something works. In my experience, for the plants I didn’t pull, usually more water and nitrogen solved the problem, but as always, your mileage may vary. Check for ants too, they have an interesting symbiosis with aphids and may be preventing their overall demise. My aphid issues corresponded with ant issues. I solved the ant issues mostly and see fewer aphids around now.
That link from max is useful. I have done the ladybug thing a couple of times but this year I noticed lots of locals already hangin’ out in the garden, so no need. I often wonder if releasing them can help establish a more natural population, but I guess not. Personally I like the locals, they have cooler looking varieties of shells / wings. I have seen a few twice stabbed ladybugs in the garden too.
I love the idea of benifical insects! Just remember they are lunching on the aphids in your neighborhood which means less aphids in the long run. I wonder what plants would attract lady bugs?
Another recommendation I have read for releasing the ladybugs is to mist the area you are releasing them to – they are thirsty coming out of that bag and will (supposedly) fly off to look for water.
Sounds like the sheet worked well, tho.
Hi Andrea,
I found your blog through Natural Life magazine. It’s great! I know what you mean about too many lady bugs being creepy! I live in rural Nebraska, and every spring, oodles of ladybugs somehow find a way to crawl into my house and congregate on the ceiling. It doesn’t bother me often, but I remove them from my kitchen. I can’t think of many things more revolting than having a lady bug plop into your food!
I’ve used them before in the spring on roses. One way to get them to stay and to go to the plant I wanted helped the most was to spray it down with sugar water before releasing the bugs. I also released them at night.
Maybe yours laid eggs on the plants as a bonus. You know what a Ladybug lion looks like don’t you?~~Dee
Last year I worked on a community farm. We used a mixture of white clover and old snap seeds to covercrop a bed in dire need of rest. This bed was ajacent to our tomato bed.
The cover crop grew lush and within a few weeks was crawling with aphids. We noticed that the aphids were also making their way over to the tomato bed but not doing much damage there. As it turned out, the covercrop was also crawling with lady bugs, significantly more than we were used to seeing.
It seems that the high aphid population was a reason for the lady bug population to dig in and expand. Conclusion, we believe that to attract predators you need to have enough prey to make it worth their while.
has anyone else had this or a similar experience.
Can you tell me where I can purchase the bags of Ladybugs?