Today I saw a local nursury had ladybugs for sale. I bought a bag of 1,800
and released them in the greenhouse. I'm gonna get that last mealie bug
that crawling around in there and popping up every time I stop looking!

Anyone else try Ladybugs for mealiebug control?


Gene

I tried sometime back.. but wasnt successful... most of the critters
escaped. also i was told i had the wrong species of the ladybugs (!!) . what
did you buy?

I need to find a way to keep them in one place...

rick

"Gene Schurg" wrote in message
hlink.net...
Today I saw a local nursury had ladybugs for sale. I bought a bag of
1,800
and released them in the greenhouse. I'm gonna get that last mealie bug
that crawling around in there and popping up every time I stop looking!

Anyone else try Ladybugs for mealiebug control?


Gene

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

I need to find a way to keep them in one place...

I never tried it, but I was told that you need to water
well before releasing the ladybugs because if they can't
find water, they will leave almost immediately.

Tracey

Can't you just put out some bowls of water?
--
Reka
http://www.rolbox.it/hukari/index.html
"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject."
--Winston Churchill
"Tracey" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
I need to find a way to keep them in one place...

I never tried it, but I was told that you need to water
well before releasing the ladybugs because if they can't
find water, they will leave almost immediately.

Tracey



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They will drown in bowls of water. Water must be on the plants for them to
use it.

"Reka" wrote in message
...
Can't you just put out some bowls of water?
--
Reka
http://www.rolbox.it/hukari/index.html
"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject."
--Winston Churchill
"Tracey" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
I need to find a way to keep them in one place...

I never tried it, but I was told that you need to water
well before releasing the ladybugs because if they can't
find water, they will leave almost immediately.

Tracey



---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.463 / Virus Database: 262 - Release Date: 17.03.03

Ladybugs are good for control, not eradication. The larvae are the big
mealybug destroyers. Which of course means the adults have to be happily
reproducing. They need a relatively cool (moderate and definately not hot)
greenhouse or cool places to hid during the heat. They need a plentiful
supply of food. If you don't have a bunch of mealybugs, you might try an
aphid infested branch from the garden to fatten them up for reproduction.
Water must always be availableon some surface for them to drink.
In short, they're not an easy fix for the problem and will more that likely
be gone or dead before the job is done. If you have a balanced ecological
system in your greenhouse (how many of us do?), the ladybugs will do their
part. Otherwise, other than for the novelty, you've basically wasted your
money and will be looking for another fix in a couple of months (or less).

"Gene Schurg" wrote in message
hlink.net...
Today I saw a local nursury had ladybugs for sale. I bought a bag of
1,800
and released them in the greenhouse. I'm gonna get that last mealie bug
that crawling around in there and popping up every time I stop looking!

Anyone else try Ladybugs for mealiebug control?


Gene

I tried them a couple of years ago in my GH, and they worked fine. The
problem is that your 1800 ladybugs will eat a lot, and I certainly hope you
don't have THAT big of a mealie problem. They're going to run out of food
quickly and will escape in search of more or will die quickly unless you
supplement the food. You can probably but bug food at the pace they came
from.

--

Ray Barkalow First Rays Orchids
http://www.firstrays.com
Secure Online Ordering & Lots of Free Info!


"Gene Schurg" wrote in message
hlink.net...
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

Ray,

I figure that if they eat their fill of mealybugs (and I don't have a huge
infestation) and erradicate them it was worth the $8 I paid.

I hope they do move on after that and go into my garden to eat their fill of
bugs out there. If a few hang around to keep the mealybugs under control
they are welcome.

Gene


"Ray @ First Rays Orchids" wrote in message
...
I tried them a couple of years ago in my GH, and they worked fine. The
problem is that your 1800 ladybugs will eat a lot, and I certainly hope
you
don't have THAT big of a mealie problem. They're going to run out of food
quickly and will escape in search of more or will die quickly unless you
supplement the food. You can probably but bug food at the pace they came
from.

--

Ray Barkalow First Rays Orchids
http://www.firstrays.com
Secure Online Ordering & Lots of Free Info!


"Gene Schurg" wrote in message
hlink.net...
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

Will the ladies eat fungus gnats?

"Gene Schurg" wrote in message
hlink.net...
Today I saw a local nursury had ladybugs for sale. I bought a bag of
1,800
and released them in the greenhouse. I'm gonna get that last mealie bug
that crawling around in there and popping up every time I stop looking!

Anyone else try Ladybugs for mealiebug control?


Gene

Jerry,

Yeah, I think I saw that listed. They are softbodied. They would have to
sneak up on them and catch the gnat while it's sitting.

Gene



"Jerry Hoffmeister" wrote in message
t.net...
Will the ladies eat fungus gnats?

"Gene Schurg" wrote in message
hlink.net...
Today I saw a local nursury had ladybugs for sale. I bought a bag of
1,800
and released them in the greenhouse. I'm gonna get that last mealie bug
that crawling around in there and popping up every time I stop looking!

Anyone else try Ladybugs for mealiebug control?


Gene

That's what I thot. I have them in my light table in my house probably
because there's standing water in the resivors under the plants. They're
hard to get rid of I've had them under control between Gnatrol and
carnivorous plants and yellow sticky cards but lately they've been getting
out of control so I thot I'd try a batch of ladies. I probably need to do
some repotting too. Oh and I grow phrags in saucers in there too. And I
was thinking to some in my greenhouse too...

"Gene Schurg" wrote in message
news
Jerry,

Yeah, I think I saw that listed. They are softbodied. They would have to
sneak up on them and catch the gnat while it's sitting.

Gene



"Jerry Hoffmeister" wrote in message
t.net...
Will the ladies eat fungus gnats?

"Gene Schurg" wrote in message
hlink.net...
Today I saw a local nursury had ladybugs for sale. I bought a bag of
1,800
and released them in the greenhouse. I'm gonna get that last mealie
bug
that crawling around in there and popping up every time I stop
looking!

Anyone else try Ladybugs for mealiebug control?


Gene

Don't know if ladybugs will eat fungus gnats (sorry), but I
purchased a Drosera dichotoma 'Giant' from California Carnivores
(http://www.californiacarnivores.com/) for $15. VERY easy to grow- sit it
in a bowl of clean water (distilled or reverse osmosis- no salts, no
fertilizer, please), give it as much light as you reasonably can, keep the
humidity up, and watch it grow.

This plant should be sold as a control for fungus gnats. I
originally purchased it for whitefly control in a research greenhouse, but
the whitefly were on their way out thanks to Marathon, so I just sat it on
a bench in a pan of water. WOW. A fungus gnat magnet, that species. One
grower reports that he used it to get rid of whitefly by shaking the
afflicted plant, and then waving the drosera around so it would pick up
the whitefly in mid-air. I can believe it.


-AJHicks
Chandler, AZ

Sorry. E-mail address in the header won't work.

"Gene Schurg" wrote in message
hlink.net...
Ray,

I figure that if they eat their fill of mealybugs (and I don't have a huge
infestation) and erradicate them it was worth the $8 I paid.

I hope they do move on after that and go into my garden to eat their fill
of
bugs out there. If a few hang around to keep the mealybugs under control
they are welcome.

Then, especially in this case, it may be well worth putting out some
additional feed for them. If you put out enought that a significant number
of them can be kept happy, they will reproduce and the surplus population
(defined by the number of bugs over the number that can be sustained on the
food you put out) should take care of any pest organisms that find their way
into your facility, and also provide a constant supply of emigrants, who'll
do their duty in your garden on their way to find more food. Surely a
constant supply of insect predators is better than a brief predator
population explosion and crash. It is a question of understanding and
exploiting population dynamics. The supplemental food you put out will
ensure that some will stay around, and as they mate, some of the progeny
will replace deceased "breeding stock" and the rest will emigrate, eating as
they go.

Some species of ant are especially useful (a practice a couple thousand
years old in China and the middle east): carnivorous species, NOT leaf
cutters or ranchers; are extremely effective predators, and being colonial,
dependant on a queen for the integrity and survival of the colony, are
easily managed to obtain effectively pest free crops. The wonderful thing
about ants in this regard is that there are quite a number of suitable
species around the world from pole to pole (or at least arctic circle to
ant-arctic circle), so there is never a need to resort to a non-native
species: one need only to study the ant species (and wasp species if you're
both careful and daring) native to the area where you're growing.

Cheers,

Ted

"Aaron Hicks" wrote in message
...
Don't know if ladybugs will eat fungus gnats (sorry), but I
purchased a Drosera dichotoma 'Giant' from California Carnivores
(http://www.californiacarnivores.com/) for $15. VERY easy to grow- sit it
in a bowl of clean water (distilled or reverse osmosis- no salts, no
fertilizer, please), give it as much light as you reasonably can, keep the
humidity up, and watch it grow.

This plant should be sold as a control for fungus gnats. I
originally purchased it for whitefly control in a research greenhouse, but
the whitefly were on their way out thanks to Marathon, so I just sat it on
a bench in a pan of water. WOW. A fungus gnat magnet, that species. One
grower reports that he used it to get rid of whitefly by shaking the
afflicted plant, and then waving the drosera around so it would pick up
the whitefly in mid-air. I can believe it.

Its ironic that you mentioned this at this time since, after I responded, it
occured to me that there were a wide range of carnivorous plants that, if
you can keep them happy (I haven't had much luck with venus fly trap yet),
would be a very useful tool in your pest control arsenal. But you beat me
to it WRT pointing this out. ;-) It is too bad there aren't carnivorous
plants that will make a meal of mammalian pests! But then I am sure animal
lovers would be outraged at the notion of a plant making a meal of stray
cats and puppies. I do love such critters, I realy do, as long as they
aren't in my garden or in my home.

Now all I need to do is find an effective way to deal with the damned
critters that made off with my irises, thankfully ignored my crocus, lilies
and hyacynths, and used the one end of my garden as a latrine! :-( There
may be several species involved since the droppings are the size that would
be left by an animal the size of a cat or small dog. Maybe I'll see if I
can manage it by building something like a cold frame around the bed, or
perhaps a wire cage that can be assembled and put in place in the late
automn and then removed and stored just after the spring thaw.

I just ordered some bletilla and cypripedium for use in that bed, and I am
tempted to put them into large clay pots which I'd just place in holes in
the ground so they'd be easy to remove and put inside (perhaps keeping them
in the cold and dark by putting them in a spare refrigerator) once hit by
frost, so as to protect them against critters; unless there is an effective
way to keep herbivores out of my garden. I wonder how effective
fritillaries are at keeping mammalian pests away. A colleague of mine, at
work, told me that nothing he has tried in his garden has been effective.

Cheers,

Ted