Ladybirds

[Labradors]

I grew Bloody Sorrel from seed last year and planted them in the corners of my veggie garden. They all came back, but were infested with aphids! Since I wasn't crazy about the taste, I ripped one out in disgust. When I went to get rid of the next one, I saw a ladybird on it so I left it alone. This morning, the whole plant was covered in ladybird lavae . It looks as if I now have a ladybird sanctuary!

Linda

[Growing Coastal]

Yay! I just saw one this morning on a pepper plant that had aphids on the leaves. Saw some aphids on tomato leaves this weekend and decided not to spray anything unless there were no aphid predators so I am very happy it is ladybird/bug season.

[bower]

Oh wow they look amazing!

[zendog]

That's great. I've taken a hands-off approach to manage aphids in my yard and at the community garden and the population of ladybugs has increased in both places. I was amazed to see them out on early apple tree leaves well before the last frost date. It helps to have things the aphids attack that I'm not super worried about, like early shoots on a crab apple. I hope you are have a nice population going as well. It always feels great to see those little tractor-like larva crawling around on the hunt!

[MissS]

When my daughter was 5 she found a ladybird larvae and put it in a little bug container that she wore around her neck. She named it Tommy. She found aphids for Tommy every day. He/she went with us everywhere including restaurants. One day he molted and turned into a black blob. I told her that he had died and that he was no longer welcome to come out with us everywhere that we went. She was quite adamant that he was just fine. I just shook my head. Then in about 10-14 days she says look mom, he's moving and sure enough he was. In a little while we had Tommy the ladybug. It appeared to be just fine except for being green! My little girl taught me a lesson.

[Growing Coastal]

That's great. I've taken a hands-off approach to manage aphids in my yard and at the community garden and the population of ladybugs has increased in both places. I was amazed to see them out on early apple tree leaves well before the last frost date. It helps to have things the aphids attack that I'm not super worried about, like early shoots on a crab apple. I hope you are have a nice population going as well. It always feels great to see those little tractor-like larva crawling around on the hunt!

I had a huge infestation of weird aphids on my apple tree. Never saw their like before. They were overwhelming and too much for ladybugs. I sprayed the heck out of it with dormant oil/sulphur the past two winters after baiting the ants in the summer. The aphids spread to the bay laurel which I could not pick last year. Looking good so far this year after spraying. I like winter spraying as it doesn't hurt the friendlies who are asleep then.

I know that ladybugs are hunters but never dreamed they'd like liverwurst. Here's one feasting on a crumb on the stove one year.
Not our indigenous ladybug.

[Amateurinawe]

I never knew the lifecycle of the ladybird, now I do and today I saw one on a carrot in my garden.

[Labradors]

To be honest, I shared the picture with a gardening friend who is in her 80's. She admitted that she didn't know what young ladybirds looked like, so I thought I would share the picture here in case others had never seen them before either .

Linda

[JRinPA]

Great pics of some good bugs. Very nice.

I really like overwintering some parsnips. This was a week or two back.

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[Labradors]

Very cool JR in PA. I was expecting to see some Swallowtail caterpillars, but ladybirds are cool too. One of mine has changed into a (gold coloured) pupa today.

Linda

[bower]

A pic of that pupa would be awesome too... I always turn up a few in the soil but don't know what they are, so I toss em and let the birds figure it out...

[Amateurinawe]

I've only found 1 larve so far so I'm gonna have to move him from plant to plant. Would be good to know what to look out for when he's done eating...

[peebee]

I'm always excited to see their tiny clusters of orange eggs, then the tiny alligators as I call them, emerge in my garden. We have so few here do they're very precious.

[rossomendblot]

I've only found 1 larve so far so I'm gonna have to move him from plant to plant. Would be good to know what to look out for when he's done eating...

The pupae sort of look like an adult ladybird stuck face first to a leaf, bottom up. The eggs are like little orange rugby balls laid in clusters on the underside of leaves. Find a plant with a good amount of aphids on and you'll probably find some eggs. Hoverflies are laying their tiny rice grain-like eggs by the greenfly on my tomatillos, the larvae are weird translucent alien looking things which like to suck the juice out of aphids. I've seen parasitic wasps around too, they will lay their eggs inside aphids and eat them from the inside out, leaving behind a mummified corpse.

[MissS]

The pupae look like a little brown bird doo. Once they start to emerge, they look like the description by rossomendblot.

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[rossomendblot]

Four hoverfly eggs and one mummified aphid.

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[Labradors]

I just went out to check on my ladybirds and I don't know what that yellow blob was that I saw yesterday. Most had pupated and they all looked like the picture that Miss S. posted, except that they had more red on them. They pupate on plants, not in the ground, which is interesting.

Linda

[Labradors]

I just found out what the yellow blob was! Someone posted on Facebook that her ladybird pupa had hatched into a yellow ladybird and the picture looked like the one that I spotted on my plant yesterday. It looked like a grain of corn. Apparently, it will turn red with time!.

Linda

[JRinPA]

I had black swallowtail caterpillars on the parsnips a month back or so. This year's parsnips will get them, if any germinated, that is. Seems to me there is sort a gap for a bit where there are not many caterpillars. I don't have a good grasp on how their life cycle works regarding migration or overwintering here. Admittedly, I have not looked that closely that often, so there may be some out there now. All told I think there are around a dozen big overwintered parsnips strewn throughout my vegetable patches and it would take hours to check every branch. Lots of ladybugs and soldier beetles this past couple weeks. Some beeflies.

[Labradors]

That's great that you have lots of parsnips for all the beneficials. I donn't understand the caterpillars either. They are there one day, gone the next and, if I'm lucky, they will re-appear.... Most of the ladybirds have gone now. I was hoping to see some more of them in the yellow phase!

Linda