what are the benefits of lady bugs?

my son loves ladybugs and i love my garden, what are the benefits of them and are there any drawbacks of them. i saw them for sale at the local ace hardware, should i get some?
thanks
tammy

they are aphid eating machines and i've never heard of a drawback with a ladybug.

whew thats great, i just let 1500 of them go into my garden!!!
thank you
tammy

They have been known to eat children. Well only mass releases. LOL

cool, now i know what to do when he is misbehaving, inform him of that information and just dangle him over the masses for a few minutes, lol.
tammy

LOL Mass releases of ladybugs generally doesn't work. Let us know what your experience is. Are there any still around?

I pulled up my aphid-infested gaura today, and then spent hours removing all the ladybug larvae, pupae, and adults that didn't seem to want to fly away to a new food source, before sending it all to the compost pile. Oh yes, I put plenty of aphids in the bucket with them. Just wanted to give them the best chance possible. I hated to take away their happy home, but I just could not stand the looks of the ratty stuff one more moment.

The ladybugs love the aphids that get on the milkweed. The aphids never disappear, I guess they hatch faster than the ladybugs can eat them.
Ladybugs can bite and it hurts, so don't let them crawl on your skin!

I have kept (not planted) a native bush that attracts aphids and it is my warning that the aphids are here. That bush keeps my lady bugs going all year and when the aphids move into my new growth on a few other trees (Sand Cherry) the lady bugs take over and only a small area is harmed. Yes I do spray with water and sharp stream the succeptable branches every early summer on the Sand Cherries. But I am Ok that these natives die back from hot sun every year. That is what they do anyway. I think they are native Mockorange.

This message was edited May 20, 2006 8:04 PM

i planted native asclepias just to give the ladybugs a reason to stay. it's spring, the yellow aphids are all over the plant, now where are the ladybugs?

I have used hibiscus in the past as my insectory - to attract aphids and then their predators and parasitoids. Works great, and then my hibiscus are all cleaned up and the beneficials move on to any other plants that have aphids - usually my fennel by then. But these gaura were not planted in the right spot for that kind of purpose - in the front flower bed, right along the street where they looked scraggly, etc... In the back, fine, but in the front where it is a little more organized, not so fine. I don't grow asclepias (another aphid attracter) anymore because the blasted red wasps take out all the monarch caterpillars. It's like a death trap for them. Doesn't seem fair to attract the monarchs, knowing that their offspring are going to become food for wasp larvae.

See my best friends are wasps and they do more on aphids than any lady beetle. I encourage yellow jackets. Our butterflies here build crysalis in the forests not in my garden. I love the great yellow hunter. Bzzzzzzzz.

See my best friends are wasps and they do more on aphids than any lady beetle. I encourage yellow jackets. Our butterflies here build crysalis in the forests not in my garden. I love the great yellow hunter. Bzzzzzzzz. See the wasp wakes up at the same time as the aphids and they prefer aphids until late summer where they go for more meat. It works well in Montana.

trackinsand - They'll come. Just be patient. I trust you're not spraying your yard with insectides...Check to see if you have any evidence of the parasitic wasp that lays an egg inside an aphid which then hatches, eats the aphid's inside, pupates inside, and emerges as an adult wasp. The adult cuts a circular hole in the back of the aphid when it emerges. Teensy little things... Look for aphids that look all puffy and brown - kind of like fat brown seeds. They've been parasitized. A great beneficial!

I've never seen a wasp eat an aphid. They are considered beneficial because they eat caterpillars, and a lot of caterpillars are considered pests. But they are H--- on a butterfly garden.

I sat on my deck one day while the wasps were buzzing and I had a small piece of green on my Wentworth Viburnum that I thought was an aphid. Well in 15 minutes at least 5 wasps stopped checked out the green spot and moved on. Then I went to the aphid bush and found yellow jackets feasting on them. So I stopped clearing the wasp nests under my facett of the house and let them have at it. I have never had aphid problems since I started that. Yes aphids appear on my sand cherries but no longer do they take off much of the new growth. Am I just lucky or what are the wasps doing. Then I researched it and they said when the wasp first emerges it feeds on insects and does this most of the summer until late summer they switch over to sugars and protein. IE blood meal, fruit, and other things I put out to keep them happy.

SOFE,
Wasnt Ted Kazinsky from MONT?? Hmmmmmmm....... heheheh

Best Regards;
bluelytes

Yes he was and I often go by the town he lived in and worship at his foundation. I found him very typical of the off the road types here. Lincoln MT is a town full of Ted K's. I like to stop there on Friday eves on my way to work in Great Falls and watch the bar brawls. I love Montana. Oh yes so were the Freeman, my wife worked on the guy from Ruby ridge's kids. Yes Montana is a place to carry a weapon.

That was Randy Weaver. Worked on him like in at the hospital??
You know, SOFER, they say that in montana, there are those from BUTTE, and those that WISH THEY WERE from BUTTE!!! heheheh :)

Regards;
bluelytes

That saying has to be from outside Montana cause EVERYONE from Montana call it BUTT NOT BUTTE. It is a town of alchol and joblesness with a highlight of a big pit poisioning all the people who live there. Birds that land in the lake in the old mine get eaten by the acid that is in the lake. Not my kind of place. Yeah Randy I had a blank. My wife works with kids and had time with Randys family.

This message was edited May 20, 2006 9:14 PM

SOFE,
Cool re: your wife!! Randy and his family were SOOOO SCREWED OVER by our govt, IMHO.

Regards;
Bluelytes

You got that right. He was a simple man trying to escape and made the mistake of being too friendly to a Federal Fire and Arms employee. Can you imagine? The movie was almost like it was. We need to get a perspective on what is inportant. Fortunatly for 9-11 they are busy elsewhere.

SOFE,
I watched the Senate Hearings on it, AMAZING HOW they TRIED to JUSTIFY the MURDER of Vicky Weaver and their 14yr old boy, but THIS is WAY OFFF topic. Maybe we should retire this to d-mail

Best,
Bluelytes