Re: Best place to buy ladybugs

In article <gmmXj.280$Q57.185@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
 jellybean stonerfish <stonerfish@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

> On Fri, 16 May 2008 12:33:15 -0500, Katey Didd wrote:
> 
> > "Sam" <standish22@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
> > news:a8656453-77e6-4ea0-a5d8-
> b9273be6ef52@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >>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