Instead of doing their job, they were …
August 5th, 2007 by ktula
… mating! These are my third batch of ladybugs. I bought these organic pest control tools because of a huge aphid infestation on my pepper plants. The first two batches of ladybugs that i released, it did not appear to me that using ladybugs to control the pesky aphids was working, as by the third or fourth day after releasing all the ladybugs (in the thousands), i would not see any ladybug remaining on the pepper plants.
When i bought my third batch of ladybugs at the Home Depot off Aurora Avenue, the cashier told me that to in order to make the ladybugs stay on the pepper plants, i should spray the plants with something sugary like Sprite. The idea is that if the ladybugs have consumed all the aphids on the pepper plants, they will continue to stay on the plants because of the sugary syrup on the leaves. If everything goes well, they may even mate and in no time, i should have thousands of baby ladybugs on the plants getting ready for the next round of aphid infestation.
One thing i noticed yesterday afternoon is that ladybugs are not the only natural predator of the aphids. I saw some wasps walking all over the leaves and some black flying insects that actually grabbed the aphids and took off with them! I think the main reason why the aphid infestation went out of control initially was the pepper plants were kept indoor. By keeping the plants indoor, the aphid population grew uninhibited since its predators could not get to them.
From now on, the pepper plants are staying outdoor.
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