Re: Best place to buy ladybugs

"Omelet" <ompomelet@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
news:ompomelet-9CEF29.03051919052008@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> In article <g0r0pi$7l5$1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
> "Katey Didd" <spamless@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 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.

We see deer all the time but they don't come near the houses because 
everyone has one or more dogs out here.

>
>>
>> >
>> > 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 s****s. 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.

Too many plants to hand pick worms and there are always THOUSANDS of
worms. 
You can turn over one leaf and see 20 or more of various sizes.  I'm out
of 
space in the gardens. I just have room for the 2 rows. These are large
broad 
plants by July.


>> > 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 ****p live lizards.
>> >
>> > See if you can get  your hands on some toad tadpoles. Raise them up
in
>> > an outdoor tem****ary 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.

We have loads of house wrens here. They next everywhere. But again, I
almost 
never see birds in the veggie garden either.

>
> Plus they are cute!
>
> I'm blessed with mockingbirds too.

Yep! We have them here also. They sing just as it gets dark.  Then, after 
dark, we hear the whippoorwills in the woods behind the house.  :^)

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