This year, Nicole and I are trying something new in the garden. We lost some sweet pea to aphids last year, so this year we are trying an environmentally friendly way to control them: lady bugs!
Live lady bugs are sold at a variety of places, including the Internet. We found ours at the 13th street nursery in Salem, OR. It cost about $7 for a pack of about 1500. If things work out well, these lady bugs will take up residence in your plants and provide you with multiple generations. So that 1500 lady bugs could turn into a perpetual population fighting aphids and spider mites.
The live bugs are kept refrigerated, so that when you get them they aren’t very active. By the time we got home they looked far more lively! Because you are supposed to distribute them at dusk (they don’t fly at night, and so they are more likely to stay where you release them), it was back in the chill chest for them once we got home. Prior to release you want to keep them cool, to keep their metabolisms low.
Had we really wanted to increase the odds that they stay where placed, it is recommended to spray them (in the bag) with a mild sugar solution, such as soda. This essentially “glues” their wings down for a few days. That sounded a little harsh to me, so we skipped that step.
They have something in the bag with them that could be food, but they don’t have any water. So, upon release you know that they will be thirsty! This actually plays to your advantage, because you can mist the plants where you would like the lady bugs and they will find their way to the water.
Later that night, it was time to release the bugs! We watered any plant that we thought might get aphids, and set about releasing the bugs. Initially, while they are still cool, they essentially sprinkle out of the bag. You can see them moving (very slowly) so it is clear they are alive, but they aren’t really going far from where they are placed. As they warm up, they get considerably more active, eventually getting to the point where I was brushing them off my hands and arms rather than shaking them on the plants like a powder.
After two or three days, I no longer saw lady bugs in our garden. I’m not sure if they flew off because we didn’t glue their wings, if they were eaten by birds, or if something else happened. I’m hoping that they are just keeping a low profile and are still there, somewhere.
The jury is still out as to whether they prevent the aphids or not. We have another sweet pea in front of our house, in the same place that was overrun by aphids last year. Time will tell if our lady bug approach works or not.




