Q: What can you tell me about ladybugs? We have aphids on our iris and rose plants. Do ladybugs really help by eating them? Should I buy some or wait for the ones living nearby to come?
A: There are about 5,000 species of ladybugs worldwide with about 500 species in the United States. They start out as yellow, orange, or red eggs laid in small clusters of up to about 30. The larval stage is a very scary-looking spiny insect that also eats insects. If you were to see one, you might think it was some kind of spider. The pupal stage has a shriveled skin that is left over from the larva. Finally, the adult hatches into the little beetle that we all recognize. The adult may be yellow, orange, pink, red, black, or gray and may or may not have spots. The adult ladybug spends the winter in mulch or piles of leaves. They often gather in the thousands to help stay warm.
If you have not been too wild with spraying insecticides in your landscape, ladybugs are probably already present, just not in sufficient numbers to stop the aphids. Aphids are born pregnant and multiply rapidly.
Ladybugs do help control aphids and other soft-bodied insects, but you need to know a little about the ladybugs you are buying. Most of the ladybugs you buy are harvested during the winter in the mountains of California, where they spend the winter hibernating in large masses to stay warm. So, when you get them and open the box, they want to fly back down the mountain. They do not know they have been moved a few thousand miles. To find food, they need to get away from all the other ladybugs as soon as they can.
They do not fly in the dark, and they go dormant in cool temperatures. If you put them in your refrigerator for a few minutes, they will stop moving around. After dark, take them out and sprinkle a few of them at the base of each plant you want them to crawl up on. Don’t put too many near any one plant; remember, they want to get away from other ladybugs.
They are also thirsty after being in dry refrigerated air. Mist or spray a little water on the plant so they can find a drop of water to drink from.
If they find something to eat on that plant, they will stay, and they might lay some eggs. The eggs hatch into larvae that also eat bad bugs. The ladybugs that do not find anything to eat move on to other plants to find food. They help clear out the whole neighborhood.
Do not put the whole jar of ladybugs out the first evening. Put the extras back into the fridge and repeat the process every few days for a week or two until they are all out in the yard. In this way, you will get more coverage over a wider area and over a longer time. Give some to your neighbors so that they can fly back to your landscape.
Adult ladybugs mostly eat insects but do eat a little bit of pollen for the nutrients they need. Pollen is often sticky, so when they travel from flower to flower, they help pollinate the plants in your garden.
If the aphids are doing too much damage before the ladybugs arrive, you can put on some gloves and squish as many as you can see. You won’t get them all and the remaining ones will help attract ladybugs without doing as much damage to your plants.
