At a local meeting of the California Rare Fruit Growers (CRFG) today, I
bought some decollate snails, beneficial nematodes, and ladybugs. I plan to
distribute the snails and nematodes in what I call a garden.

The lady bugs are going into my small 8 by 10 foot greenhouse. I hope they
get ride of some white flies that are about 1 mm in size. I don't know if
they will provide enough food to keep them happy.

I grow mostly tomatoes hydroponicly in Dutch pots filled with clay pellets
and coconut fiber. It can get pretty hot in there, 90 deg F +. I do try to
use a swamp cooler when that happens. I would appreciate suggestions on how
to keep the ladybugs happy and health. What about supplemental food and
environment?

Bill

in article , Repeating Decimal at
wrote on 5/3/03 10:36 PM:

At a local meeting of the California Rare Fruit Growers (CRFG) today, I
bought some decollate snails, beneficial nematodes, and ladybugs. I plan to
distribute the snails and nematodes in what I call a garden.

The lady bugs are going into my small 8 by 10 foot greenhouse. I hope they
get ride of some white flies that are about 1 mm in size. I don't know if
they will provide enough food to keep them happy.

I grow mostly tomatoes hydroponicly in Dutch pots filled with clay pellets
and coconut fiber. It can get pretty hot in there, 90 deg F +. I do try to
use a swamp cooler when that happens. I would appreciate suggestions on how
to keep the ladybugs happy and health. What about supplemental food and
environment?

Bill

Well, all my lady bugs are gone. I see no dead bodies. One day my greenhouse
was teeming with them, the next, they were gone. I looked at my nutrient
reservoirs and their covers. None were there.

It is a small greenhouse. I have the vents draped with screening material
although the may work themselves through. The doors were closed, but with
gaps big enough to let lady bugs through. It boggles my mind to believe that
more than 100 ladybugs could find there way out because of that. I sometimes
have a fan operating. Maybe air currents were stronger around the gaps, and
they rode the wind to freedom.

Bill