home depot
"Sam" wrote in message
...
I would like some ladybugs for my SMALL garden. 9foot by 5 foot. I
have ants, so I assume aphids. Where is the best place online to by a
small qty of them.

Any tips for keeping them around?

In article ,
"tstovall" wrote:

I'm trying to convince both neighbors to buy them!
~tom

Do they garden?
--
Peace! Om

"Human nature seems to be to control other people
until they put their foot down." -- Stephan Rothstein

In article ,
MrMe wrote:

On Fri, 16 May 2008 12:37:52 -0500, Omelet wrote:

In article ,
"Katey Didd" wrote:

"Sam" wrote in message
...
I would like some ladybugs for my SMALL garden. 9foot by 5 foot. I
have ants, so I assume aphids. Where is the best place online to by a
small qty of them.

Any tips for keeping them around?

Don't waste your money. They will leave your garden in hours.

But they left their eggs. :-) I've had a good population now for
several years. When I dumped my lot, I put them onto some grapvine
leaves that were covered in Aphids.

Feed them and they will at least leave some progeny.

You can also, as I said, purchase lacewing eggs. That way you get the
best predatory stage. The larvae.

Lacewing - Don't the larvae eat azalea leaves ? Something was
devastating our azaleas. When we described the symtoms to
the local aggy extension service they said it sounded like lacewing.
It took forever to spray them away with various pesticide applications.
If you have azaleas around and you enjoy them, stick w/the ladies ...

= Me =

Huh. The eggs I was sold were supposed to be strictly predators. I
bought them at one of the nurseries to get rid of the terrible scale
problem I had, and it did work...
--
Peace! Om

"Human nature seems to be to control other people
until they put their foot down." -- Stephan Rothstein

In article ,
jellybean stonerfish wrote:

On Fri, 16 May 2008 12:33:15 -0500, Katey Didd wrote:

"Sam" wrote in message
news:a8656453-77e6-4ea0-a5d8-
...
I would like some ladybugs for my SMALL garden. 9foot by 5 foot. I
have ants, so I assume aphids. Where is the best place online to by a
small qty of them.

Any tips for keeping them around?

Don't waste your money. They will leave your garden in hours.

Not true. If they have a supply of food, and you mist your plants with
water before releasing them in the evening, they will hang out. Then if
any of them are fertile they will lay eggs. You want them to lay eggs.
After you find some eggs, protect them. When the larvae hatch, move
them, by picking a leaf they are on, and put the leaf on a plant with
problems. The larvae are what I like to have around. They start off
very small, and grow bigger and bigger each day. If you have a plant
like fennel, that is wispy, it makes a great lady bug factory. The
larvae are easy to find, little dark specks on the thin green leaves.
And if you mist it, it holds lots of tiny droplets of water. Once you
discover what the larvae and the eggs look like, and learn to protect
them, you will never be without lady bugs. Oh, one more thing, don't put
any pesticide on your plants or your lady bugs will die. Also let your
factory plant have aphids.

You can also move a leaf with egg clusters, but I find that letting them
hatch first and moving the larvae works better.

I have a very small scale garden, but I think it would work the same, if
you have time and a bigger space.

Now if I could figure out how to make the decollate snails stay.

stonerfish

My ladybug larvae seem to live mostly in my Asparagus. Guess they like
the whispy leaves when I let them fern.
--
Peace! Om

"Human nature seems to be to control other people
until they put their foot down." -- Stephan Rothstein

In article , says...

"Omelet" wrote in message
news
In article ,
The Cook wrote:

On Fri, 16 May 2008 06:36:15 -0700 (PDT), Sam
wrote:

I would like some ladybugs for my SMALL garden. 9foot by 5 foot. I
have ants, so I assume aphids. Where is the best place online to by a
small qty of them.

Any tips for keeping them around?


Careful. I don't know the whole story, but someone brought in
ladybugs into this area a few years ago. Now they are everywhere and
do like to come in when the weather cools.

But I'll bet you have few garden pests! g They eat aphids, scale,
mealy bug and other things. Another good predator are lacewing larvae.
I got rid of a persistant scale infection on the succulents in my
greehouse using those...

I remember my ex-husband releasing them in our large vegetable garden years
ago. At least 90% were gone the next day. A few days later we didn't find
any. Same thing with praying mantis he bought. We never ordered any more
beneficials.



You have to have adequate numbers of prey around to keep any predator
happy.

No prey equals no predators.

A neighbour of ours bought a package of ladybugs once.

They all flew across the street to a less kempt lot.

The only predators I bring home are the ones I find in weird locales,
like the preying mantis I found clinging to a bank downtown.

"Omelet" wrote in message
news
In article ,
"Katey Didd" wrote:

"Omelet" wrote in message
news
In article ,
The Cook wrote:

On Fri, 16 May 2008 06:36:15 -0700 (PDT), Sam
wrote:

I would like some ladybugs for my SMALL garden. 9foot by 5 foot. I
have ants, so I assume aphids. Where is the best place online to by
a
small qty of them.

Any tips for keeping them around?


Careful. I don't know the whole story, but someone brought in
ladybugs into this area a few years ago. Now they are everywhere and
do like to come in when the weather cools.

But I'll bet you have few garden pests! g They eat aphids, scale,
mealy bug and other things. Another good predator are lacewing larvae.
I got rid of a persistant scale infection on the succulents in my
greehouse using those...

I remember my ex-husband releasing them in our large vegetable garden
years
ago. At least 90% were gone the next day. A few days later we didn't
find
any. Same thing with praying mantis he bought. We never ordered any more
beneficials.

How wet do you keep the yard?

I don't know how to answer that. A wet yard? You mean watering? We watered
as needed by the plants at the time.


I'm sorry you had bad luck. It worked very well for me!

I did, however, have a similar experince with a mantis casing. I found
a few the next year but the trouble with those is that they are
cannibals.
--
Peace! Om

"Human nature seems to be to control other people
until they put their foot down." -- Stephan Rothstein

"phorbin" wrote in message
...
In article , says...

"Omelet" wrote in message
news
In article ,
The Cook wrote:

On Fri, 16 May 2008 06:36:15 -0700 (PDT), Sam
wrote:

I would like some ladybugs for my SMALL garden. 9foot by 5 foot. I
have ants, so I assume aphids. Where is the best place online to by
a
small qty of them.

Any tips for keeping them around?


Careful. I don't know the whole story, but someone brought in
ladybugs into this area a few years ago. Now they are everywhere and
do like to come in when the weather cools.

But I'll bet you have few garden pests! g They eat aphids, scale,
mealy bug and other things. Another good predator are lacewing larvae.
I got rid of a persistant scale infection on the succulents in my
greehouse using those...

I remember my ex-husband releasing them in our large vegetable garden
years
ago. At least 90% were gone the next day. A few days later we didn't
find
any. Same thing with praying mantis he bought. We never ordered any more
beneficials.



You have to have adequate numbers of prey around to keep any predator
happy.

No prey equals no predators.

A neighbour of ours bought a package of ladybugs once.

They all flew across the street to a less kempt lot.

The only predators I bring home are the ones I find in weird locales,
like the preying mantis I found clinging to a bank downtown.

Where I live now we have natural predators and see lady bugs and mantis all
the time. Nonetheless I just saw some aphids on one of the tomato plants at
sundown.

"jellybean stonerfish" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 16 May 2008 12:33:15 -0500, Katey Didd wrote:

"Sam" wrote in message
news:a8656453-77e6-4ea0-a5d8-
...
I would like some ladybugs for my SMALL garden. 9foot by 5 foot. I
have ants, so I assume aphids. Where is the best place online to by a
small qty of them.

Any tips for keeping them around?

Don't waste your money. They will leave your garden in hours.

Not true. If they have a supply of food, and you mist your plants with
water before releasing them in the evening, they will hang out. Then if
any of them are fertile they will lay eggs. You want them to lay eggs.
After you find some eggs, protect them.

Find their eggs in a large plant filled veggie garden? You've got to be
kidding!

When the larvae hatch, move
them, by picking a leaf they are on, and put the leaf on a plant with
problems. The larvae are what I like to have around. They start off
very small, and grow bigger and bigger each day. If you have a plant
like fennel, that is wispy, it makes a great lady bug factory. The
larvae are easy to find, little dark specks on the thin green leaves.
And if you mist it, it holds lots of tiny droplets of water. Once you
discover what the larvae and the eggs look like, and learn to protect
them, you will never be without lady bugs. Oh, one more thing, don't put
any pesticide on your plants or your lady bugs will die. Also let your
factory plant have aphids.

You can also move a leaf with egg clusters, but I find that letting them
hatch first and moving the larvae works better.

I have a very small scale garden, but I think it would work the same, if
you have time and a bigger space.

This sounds workable in a small garden but ours are/were large. The ladybugs
my ex-husband bought didn't read the book. In two days we didn't see any
left in the garden. I'm sure there were a few but we had to resort to a
chemical spray.


Now if I could figure out how to make the decollate snails stay.

stonerfish

In article ,
"Katey Didd" wrote:

How wet do you keep the yard?

I don't know how to answer that. A wet yard? You mean watering? We watered
as needed by the plants at the time.

Well, I have more geckos if the yard is kept moist in at least some
areas. I have to save money on water but if some areas are never totally
dry, it appears to attract and keep more beneficial critters such as
geckos, toads and predatory insects.
--
Peace! Om

"Human nature seems to be to control other people
until they put their foot down." -- Stephan Rothstein

In article ,
"Katey Didd" wrote:

"phorbin" wrote in message
...
In article , says...

"Omelet" wrote in message
news In article ,
The Cook wrote:

On Fri, 16 May 2008 06:36:15 -0700 (PDT), Sam
wrote:

I would like some ladybugs for my SMALL garden. 9foot by 5 foot. I
have ants, so I assume aphids. Where is the best place online to by
a
small qty of them.

Any tips for keeping them around?


Careful. I don't know the whole story, but someone brought in
ladybugs into this area a few years ago. Now they are everywhere and
do like to come in when the weather cools.

But I'll bet you have few garden pests! g They eat aphids, scale,
mealy bug and other things. Another good predator are lacewing larvae.
I got rid of a persistant scale infection on the succulents in my
greehouse using those...

I remember my ex-husband releasing them in our large vegetable garden
years
ago. At least 90% were gone the next day. A few days later we didn't
find
any. Same thing with praying mantis he bought. We never ordered any more
beneficials.



You have to have adequate numbers of prey around to keep any predator
happy.

No prey equals no predators.

A neighbour of ours bought a package of ladybugs once.

They all flew across the street to a less kempt lot.

The only predators I bring home are the ones I find in weird locales,
like the preying mantis I found clinging to a bank downtown.

Where I live now we have natural predators and see lady bugs and mantis all
the time. Nonetheless I just saw some aphids on one of the tomato plants at
sundown.

Aphids on tomatoes? Really?
I've never seen that. They seem to hang out mostly on the muscadine
grapevines I use as a privacy fence, and they can have those. g
--
Peace! Om

"Human nature seems to be to control other people
until they put their foot down." -- Stephan Rothstein

In article ,
"Katey Didd" wrote:

I have a very small scale garden, but I think it would work the same, if
you have time and a bigger space.

This sounds workable in a small garden but ours are/were large. The ladybugs
my ex-husband bought didn't read the book. In two days we didn't see any
left in the garden. I'm sure there were a few but we had to resort to a
chemical spray.

Chemical spray will deter all kinds of predatory insects. While I do
use sevin when I absolutely have to, (it biodegrades rapidly so seems to
have minimal impact on my spiders, assassin bugs and ladybird beetles),
I try to minimize that as much as possible.

Placing some birdhouse gourd nesting houses for house wrens, keeping
some areas (for reptilian and amphibian predators) damp in the yard,
rocky areas where they can hide, and jealously guarding my spiders does
a lot for me. I'm also getting a healthy population of Anole lizards
and fence lizards. :-)

I don't have a lot of extra geckos right now like I've had in the past,
or I'd offer to mail you some. g It's getting to be a bit hot now
tho' to ship live lizards.

See if you can get your hands on some toad tadpoles. Raise them up in
an outdoor temporary pond. I keep finding the cuties in unexpected
places!

I'm still going to have to use BT tho' for brassicas and my passion
vines, but that won't kill predatory insects. It only works on larval
forms of pests.
--
Peace! Om

"Human nature seems to be to control other people
until they put their foot down." -- Stephan Rothstein

"Omelet" wrote in message
news

Aphids on tomatoes? Really?
I've never seen that. They seem to hang out mostly on the muscadine
grapevines I use as a privacy fence, and they can have those. g

Yes, they're aphids. There were a few ladybugs among them so left them
alone. There aren't enough to do damage. And I also noticed more damage from
the neighbors RoundUp spraying. The pepper plants have deformed centers and
the small Okra are losing their oldest leaves. It's very discouraging. It
looks like he sprayed around his garden patch which is only about 40' from
ours. I hope he doesn't do the weedy patch even closer to our garden.
We'll have nothing left healthy.

--
Peace! Om

"Human nature seems to be to control other people
until they put their foot down." -- Stephan Rothstein

"Omelet" wrote in message
news
In article ,
"Katey Didd" wrote:

I have a very small scale garden, but I think it would work the same,
if
you have time and a bigger space.

This sounds workable in a small garden but ours are/were large. The
ladybugs
my ex-husband bought didn't read the book. In two days we didn't see any
left in the garden. I'm sure there were a few but we had to resort to a
chemical spray.

Chemical spray will deter all kinds of predatory insects. While I do
use sevin when I absolutely have to, (it biodegrades rapidly so seems to
have minimal impact on my spiders, assassin bugs and ladybird beetles),
I try to minimize that as much as possible.

I have Sevin dust. We only use chemicals when the bugs are getting out of
hand. We have many acres of woodland behind us so all kinds of critters come
from back there, both good and bad.


Placing some birdhouse gourd nesting houses for house wrens, keeping
some areas (for reptilian and amphibian predators) damp in the yard,
rocky areas where they can hide, and jealously guarding my spiders does
a lot for me. I'm also getting a healthy population of Anole lizards
and fence lizards. :-)

We're too far north for anoles. We do have fence lizards and skinks, box
turtles, frogs and toads and many kinds of snakes. I've yet to see any of
them in the veggie garden. Our biggest problems are the squash vine borers
and cabbage worms on the collards. I used that bacteria for them last summer
but it was only partly effective. Most of the leaves were badly damaged
before it stared to take effect. The plants were really set back last summer
between the worms, the heat and the drought.


I don't have a lot of extra geckos right now like I've had in the past,
or I'd offer to mail you some. g It's getting to be a bit hot now
tho' to ship live lizards.

See if you can get your hands on some toad tadpoles. Raise them up in
an outdoor temporary pond. I keep finding the cuties in unexpected
places!

Because of the ponds we're loaded with toads and frogs and newts.


I'm still going to have to use BT tho' for brassicas and my passion
vines, but that won't kill predatory insects. It only works on larval
forms of pests.

We use it also. :^)

--
Peace! Om

"Human nature seems to be to control other people
until they put their foot down." -- Stephan Rothstein

In article ,
"Katey Didd" wrote:

"Omelet" wrote in message
news

Aphids on tomatoes? Really?
I've never seen that. They seem to hang out mostly on the muscadine
grapevines I use as a privacy fence, and they can have those. g

Yes, they're aphids. There were a few ladybugs among them so left them
alone. There aren't enough to do damage. And I also noticed more damage from
the neighbors RoundUp spraying. The pepper plants have deformed centers and
the small Okra are losing their oldest leaves. It's very discouraging. It
looks like he sprayed around his garden patch which is only about 40' from
ours. I hope he doesn't do the weedy patch even closer to our garden.
We'll have nothing left healthy.

Have you talked to him about it?

If you have a fence, placing a sheet of clear plastic over it might not
hurt, to prevent spray drift.
--
Peace! Om

"Human nature seems to be to control other people
until they put their foot down." -- Stephan Rothstein

In article ,
"Katey Didd" wrote:

I have Sevin dust. We only use chemicals when the bugs are getting out of
hand. We have many acres of woodland behind us so all kinds of critters come
from back there, both good and bad.

I know that feeling. ;-)
That is what keeps happening when I poison out the local rats.
Some of my neighbors have problems with deer.



Placing some birdhouse gourd nesting houses for house wrens, keeping
some areas (for reptilian and amphibian predators) damp in the yard,
rocky areas where they can hide, and jealously guarding my spiders does
a lot for me. I'm also getting a healthy population of Anole lizards
and fence lizards. :-)

We're too far north for anoles. We do have fence lizards and skinks, box
turtles, frogs and toads and many kinds of snakes. I've yet to see any of
them in the veggie garden. Our biggest problems are the squash vine borers
and cabbage worms on the collards. I used that bacteria for them last summer
but it was only partly effective. Most of the leaves were badly damaged
before it stared to take effect. The plants were really set back last summer
between the worms, the heat and the drought.

Can you hand-pick the worms? They are generally out mostly at dawn and
dusk. I know it's a pain but...

One possibility would be to simply plant more than you can eat.


I don't have a lot of extra geckos right now like I've had in the past,
or I'd offer to mail you some. g It's getting to be a bit hot now
tho' to ship live lizards.

See if you can get your hands on some toad tadpoles. Raise them up in
an outdoor temporary pond. I keep finding the cuties in unexpected
places!

Because of the ponds we're loaded with toads and frogs and newts.

I envy you the newts. :-)

I'm still going to have to use BT tho' for brassicas and my passion
vines, but that won't kill predatory insects. It only works on larval
forms of pests.

We use it also. :^)

Wrens are death on bugs. :-)
I think that's the only reason I've been able to garden at all! Little
dudes are voracious when they are raising a nest of kids.

Plus they are cute!

I'm blessed with mockingbirds too.
--
Peace! Om

"Human nature seems to be to control other people
until they put their foot down." -- Stephan Rothstein