This will definately help!

Caught this lady doing her thing on the cascade today



That looks to me to be a sack of future aphid killers under her. She's been on it since this morning. I've seen very few aphids, and have only seen a few ladybugs cruising the leaves, but they are more than welcome to breed on my plants.

if you go to a nursery, you can buy a few hundred for 8 bucks or so. Im not a crazy hippy, but they do such a good job cleaning up, way better than any pesticide I have ever used! The only bad thing is once the bad bugs are gone... so are lady bugs.

Haven't had the need to buy them as the cascade has been so healthy looking this year. Just thought that it was cool and wanted to share.

The eggs I found yesterday are lady bug sacks Ladybugs | University of Kentucky Entomology

Nice action shot!

...I keep seeing "bugs" on my first year hops and wonder whether they are good or not. I see spiders (not of the mite size) laying eggs and lady bugs just like that. Now I know why my plants aren't being eaten up!

I think i'm going to grab some ladybugs from the store to battle the Japanese Beetle problem i'm having. Say i dump the crate on my bines - what keeps the ladies sticking around long enough to do some good?

I don't think that ladybugs will mess with japs, but I could be wrong. I saw the first one of the year on my plants yesterday. I've not had beetles too badly around here in years past. Few enough that I could just flick them off when I saw them.

cactusgarrett said:

I think i'm going to grab some ladybugs from the store to battle the Japanese Beetle problem i'm having. Say i dump the crate on my bines - what keeps the ladies sticking around long enough to do some good?

Click to expand...

Food! It's also suggested that you refridgerate them for a bit so they get sluggish and hang out for a while to warm back up. Otherwise, they might just decide to scatter on you.

Ladybugs are not predators for JB's. They do however control infestations of Aphids and Mites. Benificial nematodes are predators, but only work on the grubs in the soil. Once the beetle emerges only birds will feast on them. You can try a natural approach tho', keep a bucket partially filled with water and a couple tablespoons of dishsoap in your yard. Everytime you happen across a beetle, drown it.

The theory here is that, as the beetle drowns it will emit warning scents (pheramones?) that other beetles will pick up on thusly avoiding your yard.