WHEN APHIDS ATTACK - BUY LADYBUGS

After having had a month of rainstorms on and off, followed by two weeks of sunny southern California weather, it was time to get back out to the garden and do some weeding.  The first thing I saw were aphids.  They were everywhere!  All over everything from my beautiful roses to my sweet young tomato plants.  That's when I knew it was past time to buy ladybugs and get rid of those horrors before they totally ruined my garden.

I received my ladybugs in less than a week, and put them right into the refrigerator until the next day.  I took them out of the refrigerator in the early evening,, opened the container and sprinkled them with water (not too much) and put  the lid back on, and left them on my counter.

Then at dusk it was out to the garden with my "rainwand" to to water all the foliage on my plants.  Since the ladybugs are thirsty after their hibernation, this is an excellent way to encourage them to stick around.  It is also the primary reason to do your "ladybug release" after dark.  Since they forage and fly mostly in the daylight.

Now,  I had awakened the lady bugs and given them a drink to help them become active...if there are a few that aren't moving around yet...they probably are not dead, these are waking up more slowly.  They usually become active by the time I'm almost done with my release.

Since I don't like to handle the ladybugs a lot,  I prefer to use the shake them out method to distribute them vs the grab a handful or let them crawl all over me methods.  I still get a few that end up crawling on my hand but not many. I shake them out a few per plant and maybe an extra shake on the plants that have the worst infestation.

Now I can  go to sleep tonight knowing that in the morning those lovely little ladybugs will be out there in my garden getting rid of the invading hoards of aphids that have been plaguing it.  I also know that when harvest time comes my tomato's will be pesticide free.  Before I go to sleep tonight I think about the fact that when my garden runs out of pests for the ladybugs to eat they will move on to my neighbors yard, where I  saw aphids on her roses, and then on to the next and the next.  By the time I actually fall asleep I'm feeling really good about making an actual contribution to the environment.