This is a good thing, right??

I noticed a bunch on my iris orientalises earlier this week. They better still be here when the aphids show up on my milkweed!

It is a great ladybug year. I've probably had this many in some previous years, but not often. I suspect that more of them than usual survived overwintering in various places across the state because the winter was so mild, and also that the early heat in January and February (and the early blooming of the fruit trees) may have encouraged them to start breeding earlier than usual.

It is a good thing to have lady bugs always, always,always..... except for this: when you have a lot of lady bugs, there's got to be something in your garden that they are eating. So, while it is great to have them, you might want to ask yourself what you have in such abundance that they are eating so well. (If they aren't finding something good to eat, they move on elsewhere.)

Normally at this time of the year they are feasting on aphids and on the early spider mites. If you notice that you have ladybugs but then that they seem to be disappearing, that also is a good and bad thing: it is good you had them, but can be bad if they finish up with whatever the current pest happens to be and then move on. You don't want them to move on because then you won't have them when you need them for the next round of pests....like the milkweed aphids that Lisa mentioned. You can encourage the ladybugs to stay around by planting lots of flowers they like and/or by spraying wheast around the garden as an alternate food source. You can buy wheast (essentially a whey and yeast mixture) or can Google and find recipes for making your own.

Here's an example of commercially-available wheast:

Wheast @ Planet Natural

Yes, I have lady bugs everywhere and love it. Always be happy to see the little ladies.

As Dawn suggested, I took a closer look at all the beautiful plants. Sure enough, along with cute little lady bugs, I found sugar ants on some, and then I discovered little tiny pin-prick holes on bottom leaves, and some tell-tale tiny black scrum on some leaves. Aphids! lol Darn! Well, I'll drag out the insecticidal soap. Does that hurt the ladybugs??? I know I could spray water, but the aphids will just crawl right back up.

Yes! Lots of ladybugs...even in the winter around school. The kids were finding them in the gym. I try to mow around them, which is ridiculous, I know. But I like to leave clumps of wildflowers and ladybugs.

Turbocat, Insecticidal soap can harm ladybugs, which is one reason that I rarely use it. It is more harmful to the soft-bodied lady bug larvae than the hard-shelled adult ones, but it can harm any and all of them. That is why it is preferable to just hose aphids or mites off the plants and then rely on the lady bug larvae to show up to gobble up any aphids or mites that find their way back onto the plants.

Hazel, We mow around clumps of wildflowers too as much as we can, although in drought years we do sometimes get to the point that we just have to mow it all down short to lessen the fire danger. It took me years and years to properly train my husband to mow around wildflowers. Now he does it without me asking him to (and without me threatening to kill him if he cuts them down). He also has learned that I can relax and remain calm about him cutting down wildflowers if he waits for them to set seed first. The number one rule at our house is that nobody mows down a single Texas Bluebonnet plant until they've all finished making seeds. The bluebonnets really don't like growing in clay, so it is a miracle we've been able to get them to grow here at all, and I am extra attentive to making sure they all get to reseed, whereas Tim could mow down some other flowers (like the highly invasive pink evening primrose plants) every other day and I wouldn't care. I don't particularly want those things reseeding. However, since the pink evening primroses are growing with many kinds of wildflowers that we do want to grow well and reseed, I guess we are stuck with them.

Dawn

Well, since I found some mealy bugs on tomatoes today, I hope the lady bugs stick around. (just read that lady beetle is technically correct).

I have loads of lady bugs! The grandkids are having fun counting them.