Original price was: $9.00.$1.00Current price is: $1.00.
Enhance your garden’s health with live packaged ladybugs, nature’s powerful allies in pest control. These vibrant beetles are highly effective at managing populations of aphids, spider mites, thrips, mealybugs, scales, and other soft-bodied insects. By introducing ladybugs into your yard, garden, or greenhouse, you can promote a balanced ecosystem while reducing the need for chemical pesticides.
Experience the benefits of these beneficial insects and watch your plants thrive! As with any natural pest controls, preemptive application provides the most benefit to the health of your garden.
Use live packaged ladybugs to control aphids, spider mites, thrips, mealy bugs, scales, and other soft bodied insects in your yard, garden or greenhouse.
Ladybugs eat dozens of pests per day as an adult. The adults will lay eggs throughout the gardening season. Hippodamia convergens [Wikipedia] ladybugs are native to all of North America. Keep an eye out for the larval form of the Hippodamia convergens ladybug, pictured to the right. The adult ladybugs and their larvae will attack the eggs of larger pest insects as well.
If possible, refrigerate for at least one hour before releasing. Spray water on effected plants so the ladybugs can drink once released. It is best to release the ladybugs during the cool of the evening. Ladybugs (Hippodamia convergens) eat many times their weight in softbodied plant pests. The ladybugs will lay their eggs on the underside of plants, the larvae resemble ‘little alligators’. These new ladybug hatchlings have a veracious appetite and will devour any tiny pest in their path.
Ladybugs have a 28 day reproduction Life Cycle continuously cultivating the next generation of natural pest control. Watch for the larvae and pupa to transform into an adult as they eat their way through your pest problem. Ladybugs may be stored completely dormant for up to two weeks at 34°–40° F. No food or water is needed during storage.
1 gallon of ladybugs typically contains approximately 72,000 ladybugs.
All beneficial insects are shipped on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays each week (unless there is a delay due to weather or UPS shipping holiday delays.) Due to the unpredictable temperatures at shipping warehouses, they can NOT be shipped over the weekend. Any orders received after 12:00 pm PST will be shipped on the next shipping day.
The female ladybug will lay small, spindle-shaped eggs in clusters near prey, typically on leaves or stems. She will lay anywhere from 200–1000 eggs during her life.
The eggs will hatch into alligator-shaped larvae—hence their nickname, alligators. They are black with orange markings and covered with small flexible spines. These larvae feed on aphids and other soft-bodied insects, consuming prey at an astonishing rate. These juvenile ladybugs will molt 4 times before pupating.
After feeding for approximately 5–8 days, depending on the amount of prey they consume, the larvae will pupate, attaching themselves to a mountable surface. The pupal stage lasts for about one week.
Adult beetles emerge as a red to reddish-orange color, with two converging lines on their thorax and a varying number of spots—or sometimes no spots at all. They are good fliers, readily migrating among plants and locations to find food and mates, continuing the life cycle of the amazing and lucky little ladybug.
