I was looking at my garden the other day and realized that my mint plant had aphids on it! My husband and I immediately ran out to a garden store to pick up some Lady-Bugs. I was so excited for this because I remember letting the Lady-Bugs go at a friends house when I was younger and I LOVED it! Since my son is still too little to appreciate this (he turns one in a week!) we decided to invite all of our in-town nieces and nephews over to join in the fun.
Apparently dusk is the best time to release Lady-Bugs as they don't like to fly as much at night, and so they will stay in your garden/yard to eat all your pests. Unfortunately, this time of day made picture taking quite difficult!
We decided to make a night out of it and started off crafting until everyone arrived, then we had dinner and finally it was time to Launch those Lady-Bugs!
The nieces and nephews had a great time. It was fun letting the Lady-Bugs crawl up our arms but not any higher than that! And surprisingly the girls were less afraid of these little critters than the boys were. Who would have guessed?!
Oh, and YES, we are thankful to be living in AZ right now and to be experiencing spring, but for a good majority of everyone else, this would be perfect to do later on when Spring really gets underway!
Erika,
I am so glad you were able to find lady bugs. My mint has bugs too (but they look different than aphids). My mini roses have some aphids. Alas my garden center does not have lady bugs yet. I had to settle for spraying mine with water with a touch of dish soap mixed in. Works great but not quite as fun as lady bugs. It is also a very cool lesson for the kids.
Katrina
Rebecca here: Erika, thanks for inviting us to do this, it was such a great idea and so much fun! We loved the Ladybug Launch! Yup, my girls aren't afraid because we do this every year in our garden (in fact they are begging me to buy the praying mantis eggs...but I just can't do it...that gives me the heebie jeebies!). What a fun lesson to see hands on. I can't wait to do this in our garden (thankfully we don't need the ladybugs yet). An interesting tidbit is that the ladybugs will stay around as long as there are bugs for them to eat. So if the ladybugs are gone, your "bad" bugs should be, too! Yay green gardening!
Erika,
I am so glad you were able to find lady bugs. My mint has bugs too (but they look different than aphids). My mini roses have some aphids. Alas my garden center does not have lady bugs yet. I had to settle for spraying mine with water with a touch of dish soap mixed in. Works great but not quite as fun as lady bugs. It is also a very cool lesson for the kids.
Katrina
Rebecca here: Erika, thanks for inviting us to do this, it was such a great idea and so much fun! We loved the Ladybug Launch! Yup, my girls aren't afraid because we do this every year in our garden (in fact they are begging me to buy the praying mantis eggs...but I just can't do it...that gives me the heebie jeebies!). What a fun lesson to see hands on. I can't wait to do this in our garden (thankfully we don't need the ladybugs yet). An interesting tidbit is that the ladybugs will stay around as long as there are bugs for them to eat. So if the ladybugs are gone, your "bad" bugs should be, too! Yay green gardening!
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6 comments:
What do aphids look like? Are they black or white?????
I should know these things but I just don't! We have goobs of lady bugs in our yard... maybe that's why I never have to deal with them!
Lolly, our aphids were light green and so they hid well on the mint plant. However, I've heard they can be black, brown or pink as well!
~Erika
Wow..I didn't know this..my tiger lillies got them last year and I didn't know how to rid them ....I will try this with my grand-daughter she will have so muich fun...you taught this lady a new teick...thanks.
now if i could get our ladybugs to stay OUT of the house, I;d love them as much as ya'll!
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Wow what a fun (and productive) way to spend the evening...as Rebecca said "Yay green gardening!"
That's so cool! You must have a really neat gardening center. I don't think we'd be able to find ladybugs around here; more like something we would need to order.
Thanks for the idea!
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