COMMUNITY GARDENERS RELEASE LADYBUGS EN MASSE

March 8, 2020

On March 2, 2020, multitudinous ladybugs went to dinner in the Cedar Key Community Garden.   At approximately 6 pm, the procurer of and the most knowledgeable gardener about ladybugs, Pat Deverin, shared with a small crowd of onlookers the process.  

Aphids in the Community Garden provoked Deverin to study the situation. The Internet, she quickly learned, offers an abundance of sources from which to order ladybugs that could be delivered to your door…or Garden. NaturalPlanet, greenthumb, even EBay, and Amazon can deliver the creatures. And order she did.

The creatures arrive in a packet that ought be sored in the refrigerator, where the ladybugs remain dormant, until ready to release. Deverin purchased two packets of 1,500 ladybugs and released one packet three days before the released those in the second packet.

When removed from the refrigerator, the bugs awaken and are, needless to say, hungry. So, in order to entice them to stay on garden greens and flowers, Tom Deverin sprayed a small amount of sugar and water onto the plants where the ladybugs would be placed, some, of course, landing on the ladybugs. The ladybugs feed on the sugary water and the sugary water, weighing temporarily on their wings, keeps the critters from flying off. The release is done at sunset because after the critters eat, sate themselves, it’s time for a nightly nap.

Ladybugs have voracious appetites for aphids and other soft-bodied destructive garden pests. Ladybugs lay their eggs amidst the aphids. The larvae have an even more voracious appetite. Any way one looks at it, ladybugs in the garden are wonderfully in keeping with our organic gardening commitment.  

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