Ladybugs

Hi y'all! Northern transplant to N.C., trying my hand at vegetable gardening.At this point just playing in the dirt! No, I don't know my soil Ph, yet I am in zone 7a. I have tomatoe, pepper, squash, onions from seed ( rain washed them all over the place), string beans, canteloupe, watermellon and of course, corn plants. Due to no major know-how of my own, they all seem to be doing well. I have seen my first non-planted visitor, A LADYBUG! Good or bad.

It's awesome! They love to dine on aphids.... :)

Ladybugs - or ladybirds as we call them over here - are wonderful in the garden. They look great and they eat all the greenfly. Keep an eye out for the baby ladybirds (actually they're larvae) too - they look totally different to the adults. They've got long black bodies and yellow spots and they have incredible appetites and eat loads of aphids. It's a natural garden predator which is really helpful.

Pinger42 & Buddleja; my new heros or heroins, ( as it may apply) Thank you both. I can stop sweating for the moment!

Awww, shucks...glad I could help!

No worries - happy gardening! Other great non-plants in the garden include frogs and toads as they eat all the slugs, bees and butterflies as they pollinate all the flowers, and over here hedgehogs which also eat slugs. I've had all of these in my garden except for a hedgehog which I'd love to see - but they're really shy and don't come out much in the daytime.

Hi Buddleja, I'm with you on the good guy's of the garden, I'm also in UK and as you prob know, we can now by the ladybird larve, you just sprincle them onto the garden plants and they do all the work for you without any spraying, squirting or crushing, as for the hedgehogs, IF you suspect that you have any around, (the droppings are black, 1/2 inch long) and are about at night like you say, not the droppings but the hedgehogs, put a small saucer of dog/cat food out and they will come to your garden every night, dont give them milk or bread as they will eat it but it hurts their tums, hope you find some soon, do you have an animal rescue in your area, they are always looking for people to take some young ones when ready for release into the wild again, give them a phone, they will be delighted as they gey too many to let go in the one area, they can travel far and wide, we did it a few years back and my grand kids loved it, still have some around so they must have had babies too. happy gardening. WeeNel.

Hi WeeNel, what a great idea about the animal rescue. We do have one nearby so I'll give them a call. Our back garden would be great for them as it doesn't back onto a road at all and there's a small wooded area out the back too. I like the idea of attracting them by feeding them but I fear that I'd only end up feeding all the local cats instead. I haven't noticed any droppings like to describe but I'll keep my eyes out. Actually, in the local park I've seen some droppings like that but thought it must be cat.

I didn't know you could buy the larvae. I'll bear that in mind for next year. This year we seem to have a huge number of ladybirds in the garden so it's not a problem - except for my honeysuckle which the aphids are covering. I'm spraying it with the hose regularly to keep them down but I'm not sure it's working. And my kids are collecting pots of ladybirds and carrying them over to the honeysuckle for dinner! They really enjoying helping in the garden like this.

Buddlleja, you seem to be living in paradise, it's just great to hear that your kids are enjoying the garde with you, I did all that with my dad, and never realised that he was teaching me and I was unknowingly learning, now I garden myself, I find that I am doing all the things he did, so your kids will store all this info and in later years, they will be amazed at what you tought them, if you want to put out food for any hedghogs, dont do it early evening, wait till way after dark, if you are lucky, you will hear them, a kind of heavy sniffle sound, (like a baby with a real bad cold) they come out after dark, they do travel for miles though, in winter, they hibernate so you could get the kids to make a hedgehog home for them with piles of logs from your wooded area, cover it with leaves, quite firm, and you may get luck, once you get them, they will prob stay around for there evening meal, warning for the kids, they can sometimes give a bite, have sharp claws and if they need picked yp, use a stong gardening glove, they curl up soon as you pick them up, but wait a few mins and they will uncurl when they know you wont harm them, stop feeding end of summer, as you want them to find a nest site for the winter, they are not too fussy where they build, sometimes even under your garden shed. good luck, hope you can get a resque one, it will be either late autumn or in spring, take the kids along to the resque place and let them ask questions, they usually are always looking for volunteer helpers.
WeeNel.