I ordered 4,500 ladybugs from Amazon, sold by Amazon. They arrived 2 days late. I am estimating the death toll is at least 80%, probably closer to 95% but I am not going to sort through the thousands of dead lady bugs under my plants to get an exact number. I released them the day I got em, yesterday, and only had them in the fridge for 20 mins prior to releasing to slow them down a bit. I complained and was given a full refund. The second round is on it's way and should be here today. If it's any better I'll let you know. Anyone know a quick method to scooping them up? I'm so pissed I'm thinking about just letting the ants do it for me, I am purchasing orange oil today anyways.
-
If you need help identifying a pepper, disease, or plant issue, please post in Identification.
misc Ladybugs from Amazon.com = awful!...March Biological = A+++++++
- Thread starter southernfried
- Start date
Pepper-Guru
Extreme Member
One year after bringing in some mothers from the garden, I caught a pretty bad aphid problem. One day while recording at a friends studio, I had noticed the live room was crawling with lady bugs. I caught about 50 of them and put them into a cola bottle to bring them home. I put shallow trays of water at the base of each plant as well as the open cola bottle. After a month or two, my home was swarmed with the lady bugs! Eggs all over the leaves and stems. Larva crawling all over, it was an awesome sight to behold. 
One year after bringing in some mothers from the garden, I caught a pretty bad aphid problem. One day while recording at a friends studio, I had noticed the live room was crawling with lady bugs. I caught about 50 of them and put them into a cola bottle to bring them home. I put shallow trays of water at the base of each plant as well as the open cola bottle. After a month or two, my home was swarmed with the lady bugs! Eggs all over the leaves and stems. Larva crawling all over, it was an awesome sight to behold.
I don't have a huge aphid problem yet. I have noticed one on my clothing after going through the plants a couple of times. It's mostly these damn leaf hopper bugs and other critters which I have read lady bugs will attack and eat when they are smaller. I'll update when the second order gets here.
Pepper-Guru
Extreme Member
For the bigger pests, I like mantis.
I put out some mantis eggs two weeks ago. No clue if they've hatched yet.
If you strike out with the next batch of ladybugs, I can recommend March Biological. My order of 3000 had very few dead bugs. In fact, the majority of them stayed in the fridge in the bag they came in for over 2 months. When I moved the plants to the greenhouse, I freed the remaining ladybugs. All aphids disappeared quickly, but now I am dealing with fungus gnats. I just ordered beneficial nematodes from March Biological. Good luck.
Thanks for the rec! I was thinking of getting some nematodes, I have fungus nats on some of my plants as well
One question I had, will ladybugs or their larvae eat baby mantids?
Hey SF, what was the actual online seller of the ladybugs? If it was Hirt's Gardens / 9GreenBox, then unfortunately I'm not surprised to hear about your problems. I ordered them last season and about 60% of mine were D.O.A. as well. 
Hey SF, what was the actual online seller of the ladybugs? If it was Hirt's Gardens / 9GreenBox, then unfortunately I'm not surprised to hear about your problems. I ordered them last season and about 60% of mine were D.O.A. as well.
The seller was listed as Amazon, llc. I think it was Amazon's bug department called Bug Sales. The mantid eggs came from Hirt's, and since I have yet to see a single baby mantid I am assuming those were toast, it was been 2 weeks.
Doubtful, and even if they do the mantids will get their revenge when they grow larger. I would think even baby mantids are a bit large and fast for a ladybug.
The second shipment arrived from amazon, late as the first, and also with about 80-90% of the bugs dead. Fortunately, Amazon refunded me in full for that as well.
I looked into march biological as Torno recommended. Thank you! I was disappointed to see that they were currently out of ladybugs, but I did order some nematodes. Brad, the owner, called me personally soon after I placed my order. He told me I would need to select 2 day shipping to ensure the nematodes arrived alive. We struck up a bit of a conversation and I told him about my amazon ladybug experience and asked him when he would have the ladybugs in, which were listed as being out for the next two weeks. He was kind enough to tell me if I could hold off for 1 week, he would ship me some of his ladybugs along with my nematodes to save on shipping. Pretty cool he got me the ladybugs sooner than 2 weeks, and the customer service was A+. I was a little upset as two day shipping from the pacific northwest to alabama is a little pricey, but was so impressed with the customer service and Brad that I went ahead and did it. I am very glad I did. I counted only 2, yes 2, of the 1,500 ladybugs that had died. The nematodes were deployed to help control fire ants in a shaded bed I want to plant some more green beans in.
In short, if you need any sort of beneficial insects or biological controls, you cannot go wrong with march biological.
http://www.marchbiological.com/
I looked into march biological as Torno recommended. Thank you! I was disappointed to see that they were currently out of ladybugs, but I did order some nematodes. Brad, the owner, called me personally soon after I placed my order. He told me I would need to select 2 day shipping to ensure the nematodes arrived alive. We struck up a bit of a conversation and I told him about my amazon ladybug experience and asked him when he would have the ladybugs in, which were listed as being out for the next two weeks. He was kind enough to tell me if I could hold off for 1 week, he would ship me some of his ladybugs along with my nematodes to save on shipping. Pretty cool he got me the ladybugs sooner than 2 weeks, and the customer service was A+. I was a little upset as two day shipping from the pacific northwest to alabama is a little pricey, but was so impressed with the customer service and Brad that I went ahead and did it. I am very glad I did. I counted only 2, yes 2, of the 1,500 ladybugs that had died. The nematodes were deployed to help control fire ants in a shaded bed I want to plant some more green beans in.
In short, if you need any sort of beneficial insects or biological controls, you cannot go wrong with march biological.
http://www.marchbiological.com/
I was thinking about buying some, but today I saw probably 6 or 7 ladybugs on my plants 2 of which were humping on a Super Chile. I don't have an aphid problem though, I've only seen a few and haven't seen any for a couple weeks. I'm battling mites right now, I might order some mite predators or praying mantis eggs. The mite predators are expensive though. 
Maybe the ladybugs will go after the mites since there aren't any aphids around though...
Maybe the ladybugs will go after the mites since there aren't any aphids around though...