ladybug - the yellow gemstone

found a little yellow bug on the leaf this morning. it moved along the tweed, and stayed still on a leaf. then there's another one. then another one. and nearby, there's some kind of nest built in silky threads, and some excretements around....

and they looked like ladybugs, in fact they were.



"Lady beetles like to feed primarily on soft-body and scale insects like aphids; a ladybug can eat as many as five-thousand aphids during its lifespan. A female may lay fifty to three-hundred eggs at a time, which take three to five days to hatch. Larvae take about two to three weeks before pupating into adult ladybugs."

"Just a note for those of you who have an aphid problem, even with ladybugs in the garden….. Get rid of the ants, and the aphid population will go down too. Ants ‘farm’ aphids as they ‘milk’ them for their juice. The ants will protect the aphids, move them around, and hide them away. So the poor ladybugs are outnumbered, and in danger. You need a two prong approach. Kill off the ants (sprinkle semolina or maize meal around the garden – the ants carry it back to the queen, she eats it, can’t digest it, swells up and pops. Gruesome, but effective and strikes at the heart of the nest. Also organic), and let your ladybugs feast. You will have a controlled aphid population in no time."













how to start a ladybug garden