If you do a search on Google for "ladybird beetle" you will find there are
several different varieties of Lady Bugs.

One specifically eats mealybugs. There are stories about how they brought
this one into save the crops where mealies were killing everything.

From what I read all of them eat mealies and soft bodied insects but prefer
aphids and soft scale (hmmm think I saw some of that too in my plants). I
figure if they can't get any aphids they will resort to whatever they can
find and that will be mealies!

Keeping them in place is not a problem since my Greenhouse is a closed
environment except when I open the doors. I figure 1,800 Ladybugs scouring
the plants for softbodied bugs is a good thing. It would take them a while
to find the openings to the outside. If they move out into my garden when
the weather warms that's a good thing too.

I'll let you all know how this experiment progresses.


Good Growing,
Gene