The every-six-week shipment of beneficial insects has arrived, so I'm spreading bugs this evening. Every year, we order ladybugs, lacewings (for grape gnats), encarsia formosa (for whitefly), fly predator wasps (they don't sting people; they eat fly larvae), and preying mantises. Today, the first three arrived.
The ladybugs are live; everything else is still in the egg.
I hang the lacewing eggs primarily in my grapes, but a few in the rosebushes where aphids like to hang out. Sometimes I put them in my cruciferous veggies, too.
I put some encarsia formosa in the grapes, too; they get put everywhere.
It's best to distribute them at dusk, so my photos are a bit dim.
Gratuitous sunflower picture; we have sunflowers coming up everywhere this year, and I love it!
Ladybugs are fun to spread, as long as you like having them on you!
I had 5000 tiny little friends to introduce to the homestead, and I spread them liberally.
There's always a few that can't get their directions straight, and hitch a ride indoors.
I've made three trips to various doors and windows since coming inside, to send a straying ladybug back to the wild. It doesn't seem to faze them.
It takes me about a half hour to spread bugs about every six weeks; a lot less time than it would take to spray insecticide everywhere! We've noticed a significant drop in the aphid, gnat, and fly populations since we started this a couple of years ago. I used to kill at least a few dozen flies in my kitchen every week; now it's unusual if I have to chase more than a half dozen a month. There are still flies on the cows, but not as many by a long shot. The grapes used to be swarming with gnats in September, but that population has also dropped significantly.
We haven't found an effective predator for yellow jackets that we're prepared to live with - me having a certain fear of bald-faced hornets - so we spray for those around the house. We spread our beneficial insects well clear of the house, so it seems to work.
Back to the piano I go!
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