Hired Bugs

February 21, 2006 9:10 AM

Nature's Control: Hired Thugs Bugs to police your garden. "If desired, you can keep ladybug adults from flying by "gluing" their wings shut, temporarily, with a sugar-water solution. Half water and half sugared pop (Coke, Pepsi, etc.), in a spray bottle, works fine."
posted by Gator (13 comments total)

Our efforts to use ladybugs in our garden went much better once we stopped killing the nasty-looking things we hadn't known were their larvae.
posted by MrMoonPie at 9:13 AM on February 21, 2006

It's important to note that even if it's an inside plant that has aphids, you want to bring it outside to release the ladybugs. After buying an entire margarine tub packed full of ladybugs, my family learned this the hard way.
posted by booksandlibretti at 9:20 AM on February 21, 2006

Ladybug! Ladybug!
Fly away home.
Your house is on fire.
And your children all gone.

All except one,
And that's little Ann,
For she crept under
The frying pan.
posted by caddis at 9:23 AM on February 21, 2006

Ohmigawd Gator, thank you so much! I was at the gardening store just this weekend to get ladybugs to kill the aphids on my roses (it's been an unusually warm winter in Southern California), but they said they won't have any until mid-March. So I just ordered some from the website! Yay!
posted by Asparagirl at 9:36 AM on February 21, 2006

(And I'm loving all the organic gardening posts on MeFi lately.)
posted by Asparagirl at 9:37 AM on February 21, 2006

It's important to note that even if it's an inside plant that has aphids, you want to bring it outside to release the ladybugs...

Ladybugs ALL over the house .... just in time for April fool's day. What a great idea. Thanks booksandlibretti.
posted by R. Mutt at 9:56 AM on February 21, 2006

Ok I am SO ordering some Praying Mantis eggs.
posted by glenwood at 10:25 AM on February 21, 2006

So if these guys grow the "good" bugs, they must have a massive program to grow "bad" bugs as food, no?
posted by R. Mutt at 10:34 AM on February 21, 2006

I don't know that it's been terrifically effective, but I've released ladybugs and hatched praying mantises, and it's been fun -- especially those cute little mantises. My wife uses Roundup now and then...but I'm not going to pick something else to argue about!
posted by kozad at 11:12 AM on February 21, 2006

Our efforts to use ladybugs in our garden went much better once we stopped killing the nasty-looking things we hadn't known were their larvae.

So that's what those are! When I was a wee kid my siblings and I would pretend those things were baby Gila monsters.

Also, a decent sized canister of live ladybugs opened indoors is a force to reckon with, and an object lesson to be careful of what you wish for on your birthday.
posted by loquacious at 12:42 PM on February 21, 2006

R. Mutt, if you decide to go that route, note that I said they come in a container that's pretty much identical to a margarine tub. I can only imagine those practical-joke possibilities, although it seems a bit hard on the ladybugs.
posted by booksandlibretti at 12:57 PM on February 21, 2006

There is a new way to control roaches that reuses coffee grounds and disposable jars. Simply place coffee grounds in a jar and partially fill with water and stick the jar next to a wall outside (be sure the jar rim is touching the wall). The roaches climb up the wall and into the jar, and drown there. I've tried it, after reading about it locally last year. It works better on cockroaches and woodroaches than any method I know of. I actually felt I succeeded in getting rid of them for the season. I caught well over 100 roaches with three small salsa jars in two months. Even if you forget the jars exist and let them dry up it works because the roaches still can't escape. I just add more water to the bottom as I water the garden, and even with scores of decomposing roaches mixed with the grounds, it seems to work even better.


posted by Brian B. at 2:08 PM on February 21, 2006

can i just say Yea for calling it pop, i live on the east coast now and all these bastards call it soda...what the fuck.
posted by stilgar at 9:08 PM on February 21, 2006