I found some ladybugs at HD and also had a question on them:
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/578689/
I need ladybugs!
You don't want the Asian Ladybugs....trust me. We have them back home in West Virginia. Every fall when it turns cool they come into the house. Thousands of them. We have to spray around every window and door to try and keep them out. They have the same shape as our ladybugs but are a yellow orange with no spots. THEY STINK TO HIGH HEAVEN!!!!! and get into everything. All day long it's gettin out the vacuum and suckin em up. Just try and make dinner let alone eat it without being on guard. They are nasty. You never see them in the spring or summer so I can't see where they would be beneficial. Someone brought them over and found out it was a big mistake. Stick with the good ol made in the USA ladybugs.
MollyO, no need to apologize! I am always busy too and not always able to get back to threads I want to keep up with. I eventually have to just unwatch them to stop the guilt. lol Glad you have a chance to get back on!
I am proud to say that I have a ton of my own ladybugs this year! I have a gigantic native sunflower that has gigantic leaves and the undersides were all covered in nasty aphids. BUT they brought the ladybugs who have layed tons of eggs and now I have eggs, larvae and ladybugs! This one particular sunflower is pretty ragged but it's allowed to stay as long as it's attracting the ladies!
I've even taken some of the larvae and moved them to other plants, like my dill that is suddenly getting aphids. I hope this cycle continues because I've not had any aphids on my milkweeds lately either.
It's so good to hear from you, MollyO! We all get busy with life. You have nothing to apologize for, I hope everything is settling down for you - as much as it can - for now.
I have been wondering about the Plantmobile, how is that going? I've been very excited this past week to see numerous caterpillars on each of the three "caterpillar cafes" placed around my yard. There's plenty of Mexican Milkweed, but I haven't seen any cats on them. I'll post a thread in the butterflies and hummers forum later, I'm not sure if the cats I have are Monarchs or not (do they eat parsley, rue & fennel?)
I still remember you telling us about children learning empathy when they see the connection between the plants that grow and the life that comes from it. I'm expecting a grandgirl in August and have already started planning special times in the garden with her.
Hope to see/hear from you again soon,
Mary
Good to hear back from you both! maggiemoo, The caterpillars on your rue/parsley and/or fennel are Eastern Black Swallowtails, they do look lots like the monarch and queen cats but when provoked they stick up those stink horns (as all swallowtail larvae will do).
Wish I had a few as I'm going to be bringing the Plantmobile to the Austin Nature Center's camp tom'w and I'm teaching about butterflies. Since it looks like rain (isn't it a deluge over in Conroe right now?) I'll have lots of backup activities if we can't go on a scavenger hunt over at the Botanical Gardens (my old haunting grounds).
I haven't been able to do as much as I'd hoped with the P'mobile during this past year am still trying to decide whether I want to become a non-profit myself (lots of paperwork w/c I abhor) or work under the umbrella of another organization. All that I know is that I want to see it out there doing what I can to develop kid's empathy and help give teachers the support they need to have school gardens (so their students can have all of the social and academic benefits that brings).
I have had some fun doing a little teacher training and some neat events and think I may be able to put together a pilot project involving two schools from very different parts of town. I was involved in getting both gardens built and would like to use parents from the wealthy school as my volunteers in the East Austin school and document he changes.
Meanwhile, I have had some articles published (the career I was starting when I bought the truck) and I've got another group of amazing gals going to Provence with me in the fall. My dad seems to have survived this latest scare (his cow valve should give him a few more years) and my son got through 8th grade (in spite of an extremely bad attitude which we're working on, aaargh!), daughter (Mae, 20) is home fo rthe summer and my sweet husband is still a tower of strength...In other words I have nothing to complain about and a lot to celebrate...
Congratulations on the impending arrival! That will one lucky granddaughter!
lol, MollyO
Just saw this thread...
maggiemoo, The picture you posted was ID'd by konkrete as a hover fly larva, and the first picture is the pupa of the hover fly. Excellent good guys. They don't eat as much as the ladybug, because the adult hover fly feeds on pollen, not insects. But its babies munch on aphids along with the ladybug larvae and lacewing larvae - which also resemble little alligators - tan ones.
The ladybugs we buy are scooped up in the Sierra Madre mountains of California during the winter, when they are not active. Basically, when we put them on our plants they are very hungry and thirsty, and after they fill up they try to fly back to California. I may be exaggerating a little there, but not much. The water is sprayed on the plants before release because they are dehydrated from storage. It is a good idea to spray the plant that has aphids on it with some sugar water before releasing the ladybugs, at night, in order to keep them around as long as possible. Release them at the base of the plant and they will crawl up, eating the sugar water and then locating the aphids. But come sun-up, all bets are off.
Someone said something about not seeing many ladybugs, or aphids either, in their yard this year. If there are no aphids, the ladybugs will have nothing to eat, and so they will be somewhere else - somewhere where there are aphids. I've only seen the twice-stabbed when there is scale to be eaten...
CJ
Ohmigosh! I just saw the date on this thread. Never mind.....
Hey Mary, I have a granddaughter due in September! Does yours live near by? If so, you are one lucky person!!
CJ, who just said good-by to her 4 year old granddaughter, returning to her home in Tennessee...
The thread is old, but the information from you all is timely. Thanks to all.
We always need ladybugs and info on them and other good guys!
CJ, do you have any pics of lacewing larvae? I know what the eggs and the adults look like but not the larvae.
Sure do. Here 'tis.... Got this from the U of Nebraska website. They have some great photos.
Thanks for all the info CJ! I didn't have any aphids earlier this year (2006, lol), but now I have plenty, and no ladybugs.
My grandgirl will be living in Houston, not too far away. I'd hate to think about her living so far away, that has to be hard for you. Is your new grand going to be in TN also? Adam (my son) really wants to move to Oregon, Eugene or Portland (can't remember which), because it's the most baby-friendly and vegan-friendly city in the US. I hope they don't move!
What on earth are these things? I need to get a book on bugs, can anyone recommend one?
Mary, that's the nymph stage of milkweed bugs. Bad guys, but you need to pick them off and put them in a bucket of soapy water. Can't spray even soapy water on a milkweed plant becasue of the monarch cats and eggs. Those little wing nubs say they are teenagers, and will become adults shortly, and then they can fly and it is hard as all get out to get them to take a soapy bath!
My most favorite insect book is Garden Insects of North America, by Whitney Cranshaw. Great photos, information, and organization. You can even look up a plant and find out which insects are a problem with that particular plant. Cuts out a lot of guess work...
CJ
Gotta tell you this. My granddaughter (almost 4) was all curious about my steroscope, so we took a walk through the garden looking for aphids, bugs, anything to put under the scope and let her see. Wouldn't you know it - not a single bug could I find!! Oh yes, a wasp or two, but I wasn't going after those things! Finally found some scuds (because of all the rain) in a petri dish lid that I had left outside accidentally, and she got to look at those. I shouldn't complain, should I? I am probably in BIG trouble now!!!
CJ
Lol! Where ARE the bugs when you need them?
Thanks for the info and book recommendation.
This is a good Id site for bugs. It has helped me a few times. (Not that I remember what they were the next time! LOL!)
http://bugguide.net/node/view/15740
Those lacewing larvae sure are ugly! I think I'm glad I don't see them in this stage.
I've just now started to see aphids on some small milkweed plants (because I've been saying I had none!) so I've been taking ladybugs off of my huge sunflower and moving them to the milkweed. They immediately run into an aphid and start eating but I'm not sure if they are staying on the plants. My abundance of ladybugs and larvae are now dwindling but hopefully it's just a stage and there will be more soon.
Maggiemoo, I have a "Southern Living Garden Problem Solver" book that I got for like $5 at one of these big "BOOK SALE" places. It has a lot of pictures of bugs and diseases.
Use my "bucket of death" method on those horrid milkweed bugs! Bucket, some orange oil or just a little soap, and slowly lean the plant over the bucket, then WHACK! Knock it on the side or even dunk the entire pod and bugs into the water. Works pretty good! :) (and it becomes fun too!)
It's interesting to watch the lacewing larva at work. Those "tusks" are hollow and it impales the aphid with them, then sucks the juice right out of its little body - while holding it up in the air. The aphid just collapses, like one of those mylar balloons when you let the air out. They aren't called aphid lions for nothing!
I guess this is how we basically non-violent people work out our frustrations, lol. Those milkweed bugs got a bubble bath yesterday - they're all spic and span clean, but not moving much (hee hee heeee, rubbing my hands together.) :-)
Paige, keep in mind that ladybugs don't eat near as many ahids as their hatched babies do, so don't be discouraged if they just munch a few and go on their way. The hope is that they have laid time-bombs all over the place that will take the rest of the aphids out in a "shock and awe" attack.
CJ, that book looks great. I especially like that you can look up plants for the bugs that bother them. Looks like I can get it as a pretty decent price online, too!
Oh yes Mary, I have had lots of ladybug larvae too! I started with the ladybugs on my sunflower, then found the eggs so I kept watching and soon I had little alligators swarming the plant. I even moved some of them around to milkweed and dill.
They've all pupated now and most have spread around or left. Hopefully they layed more eggs first! I had a batch on a piece of dill recently so I put them in a container and watched them. They hatched out all at the same time and were so tiny that I had to use my good magnifying glass to see them and still had a hard time seeing them. They were yellowish/white when they first hatched so it was hard to see what the were. They soon turned dark and stayed on their eggs for a while then when they started moving I put them in the cage with cats and dill. It was interesting.
I tried to take some pics but they were too small. You might can see a little in this one.
Well, that didn't work right. I zoomed in on it so I'll try again.
Your dill had aphids for them to eat?
Yes, my dill started getting aphids after it started flowering. I figure it's on it's way out now. ...I really need to learn more about herbs!
How cool! One of my friends at work now thinks I've gone over the edge, talking about the bugs in my garden, lol. She said, "You're a gardener and I'm a planter. I'm just not ready to go there yet."
I just love her!
That's funny Mary! It actually makes me feel good. When I was out taking some pics today I was thinking about how I've become just as interested in the bugs and other things I attract to my garden as the plants.
I had a tiny cottontail for a few days (haven't seen it lately) and loved it and had even hoped it would stay for a while.
I don't just plant anymore, so I guess I am a gardener! :)