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misc Are Ladybugs good for Pepper Plants??

titeWoozy

titeWoozy

Every winter my house becomes infested with ladybugs. I dont really know any good that comes from them but I have heard they are good for plant life. If anyone know any benefits from ladybugs please let me know, I have alot of them to deal with.:mouthonfire:
 
Thery are a natural predator for aphids....good in that sense....but in my thinking, they would not be there without a food source....check your plants for aphids.....
 
There is no aphids, they are just all over the house every winter, and they just happened to come upon my plants. They just chill all over, and then when it gets warm outside somehow they leave the house and move on.
 
I am going to pay good money to have them on my plants this year. From what I have read, unless there is a food source, they will disappear...like praying mantis'

Just thought, that may be the reason you don't have aphids...
 
One of the Asian Ladybugs does swarm in winter. I hear folks further north complaining about them on other garden groups. They're looking for a warm place to spend the winter.

Outside, they're great insect predictors, and eat a lot of bugs that will damage your pepper plants.
 
I buy ladybugs every year for aphid problems. Native ladybugs will not be a problem indoors, like Pam said its the Asian ones, and they actually bite.
 
Well if anyone needs any ladybugs I will gladly gather some put them in a jar with holes in it so they get fresh air and mail them to you. They are not of the asian variety.
 
So do the asian ones eat aphids? And they do not bite, by everything the newspapers said around here when the takeover of the orange bastards began is that they piss on you not bite, but then again small town newspapers aren't cited for their scientific findings very often so they very well may be wrong. Kind of like flies barf on you then lick it up. Similar but not, if you follow me.
 
All ladybugs eat aphids but its the Asians that bite and cluster in your home.

"Asian Ladybugs were first released in the early 1970's by the USDA to control pest insects in field crops and orchards. 2001 brought a severe aphid infestation in soya bean crops, the asian ladybeetle came to the rescue and saved the soya beans from destruction. Because the food source was so high, this triggered them to lay more eggs, thus a huge population developed. Unfortunately, not being native, and normally hibernating in cracks & crevices on rock mountains in Asia, when fall arrived they sought out our homes for overwintering. Although very beneficial, they now became a pest! They sometimes bite in seeking moisture & food, these annoying bites are harmless. Controlling Asian beetles can be accomplished by vacuuming. Do not squash the Asian lady beetle as they will stain. The biocontrol industries was in no way responsible for this phenomena and is working along with many others to control this problem. The Asian ladybugs are a very good Beneficial Insect that is doing an excellent job saving soya bean crops. NIC still offers the Hypodamia converges Ladybug that is used inside & outside, these are native to North America."
http://www.naturalinsectcontrol.ca/catalogue/getprod.cgi?1052
 
well all they have to do now is release swarms and swarms of dragonflies. and when the dragonflies become a problem they can just release some frogs...
 
Dont have the overwintering problem here but there have been a lot of posts about aphids running riot with indoor crops. I bet if you didnt have the ladybugs you'd have aphids.

Have you started naming them?
 
I'm waiting for my ladybug order to arrive today. I hope they didn't freeze.
As soon as things warm up in the spring, I never have aphid problems outside. Its only in the winter when there is a lack of predators. Ladybugs don't like going inside my greenhouse. Once they are in there they are ok but I usually have to take plants out of the greenhouse for a few days for the ladybugs to find them. The damn aphids are born pregnant too so you have to try to get them all or things can get out of control quickly
 
POTAWIE said:
I'm waiting for my ladybug order to arrive today. I hope they didn't freeze.
As soon as things warm up in the spring, I never have aphid problems outside. Its only in the winter when there is a lack of predators. Ladybugs don't like going inside my greenhouse. Once they are in there they are ok but I usually have to take plants out of the greenhouse for a few days for the ladybugs to find them. The damn aphids are born pregnant too so you have to try to get them all or things can get out of control quickly
Click to expand...

plus they give live birth *and* lay eggs depending on the timing. then occasionally sprout wings and go from plant to plant dropping off a couple eggs or nymphs. before putting my plants back at the murder scene this year i rained down chemical warfare two weeks in a row on anything in the vicinity and put out a sacrificial lamb to see if there was anything i missed...
i. hate. aphids.
 
I was tempted to purchase ladybug larve this time but adults seemed more ecomical.

I'll try to get a pic when I release them
 
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