Last summer a good friend dropped off a milkweed plant from a local native plant nursery. There was an amazing benefit to buying the milkweed this way. There were already many Monarch eggs on the plant and for the first time I was able to raise Monarch butterflies. I will have an update on year two later this summer! There was a negative consequence however, there were already also aphids on the milkweed. I have never had a problem with aphids in the garden before so I was careful, I put the plant inside the butterfly habitat, believing that this would stop the aphids from spreading. Since I didn’t see any aphids on any other plants I thought I had succeeded. Until this spring, when I found hundreds of aphids infesting my rose bush.
Thankfully, I had read about the use of ladybugs as aphid control in your garden. Adult ladybugs will decimate an aphid infestation very quickly. And a second, and maybe even more beneficial side effect, is the ladybug larva. Ladybug larva will also decimate aphids but they will eat any additional pests in your garden as well. Ladybug larva, which you would never guess was a ladybug if you saw it, is just one stage of the ladybug life cycle. Ladybugs go through phases much like a butterfly, see images below. First, Ladybugs start out as an egg, when hatched you will see the larva phase, then the larva will turn into a pupa, and finally the adult ladybug will emerge.
I ordered 1500 ladybugs from a local nursery and they arrived within a few days. It is best, if you are ordering through the mail rather than picking up in person, to order when the weather will be cool. If it's the middle of summer pick up your ladybugs in person or there probably won't be many, if any, alive when they arrive. Either way when you get the ladybugs home you must put them in the fridge until sundown. Putting ladybugs in the fridge will not kill them but it puts them in a sort of hibernation but they will revive very quickly once removed from the fridge. I have seen sources say that you can keep ladybugs in the fridge for up to a month but I wouldn’t want to store them that long. The longer they are stored in the fridge, the less time they spend in your garden hunting aphids and other pests. Use your best judgment but I released them the evening I received them. Ladybugs only fly during the daytime so releasing them at night will ensure they spend some time in your garden before leaving. You should water the location you intend to release them earlier in the day. When the ladybugs awaken after leaving the fridge, they will be hungry and thirsty, watering will help as will ensuring that you release them in the problem area. After I released the 1500 ladybugs, I stuck around to watch the massacre for a little while, see images below.
A side note, ladybugs will leave your yard if they don’t find enough food to maintain them. So after your problem area is clear you will probably not find many in your garden anymore. If you are lucky though you will find ladybug larva to continue eating pests. I had a smallish infestation and my problem was clear with 1500 ladybugs, however, if you have a larger infestation you may want to buy a larger amount or release more ladybugs at a later date. A note of caution, if you are raising Monarch butterflies as well, you will not want to release ladybugs on your milkweed plants while the Monarchs are laying eggs. Adult ladybugs will not harm Monarch eggs or caterpillars but the larva may. If you see aphids on your milkweed while Monarchs are laying you can try spraying them with a high powered hose to knock them loose or if you catch it early enough, cut and remove from your yard the infected parts of the milkweed.
Comments