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applestar
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Embrace Your INNER APE - dealing with APHIDS >> got ladybugs

I have mentioned several times this winter that my overwintering inside plants are suffering from ants bringing aphids to pasture every time there's thaw. I do try to control the ants which is what *I* always advise, but they manage to find their way in.

If I miss the first incursion, the aphids happily reproduce and *voilà* an infestation :evil:

My tomatoes, peppers, and lemon verbena in particular are vulnerable.

...I have found that when I see ants or a few aphids, a cup of sudsy water does wonders. What I do is dip my fingers in the water, then gently run them over the growing tips and emerging buds where aphids typically congregate. Sometimes the number of aphids that come away stuck to my fingers can be staggering. :eek:

Good for hurriedly reducing the aphid pressure, and initial local infestations can be dealt with this way, too -- dip fingers in the sudsy water, run finger over and through foliage, rinse and repeat. Thoroughly mist with water in a spray bottle to rinse the soapy water from the foliage afterwards -- especially tender young leaves.

Sometimes aphids are hiding in the leaf node or tender new unfurling young leaves or seedlings where it's too narrow/tight or tender to go over with my fingers. Bamboo skewers work great for those areas.

It's when I'm examining the tip of the bamboo skewer to see -sometimes a whole string of- aphids clinging to it- that I'm reminded of those nature videos showing chimpanzees catching termites on grass stems -- lick, probe, pull out bugs, and lick off. ...if you try this, do resist those irrational urges to put the aphid covered bamboo skewer in your mouth. :>

I did FINALLy tire of all the "monkey business" and order {some} live ladybugs -helpsos-

:shock: "...what release them IN THE HOUSE?" You say? -- Yes indeed :() It must mean something that my family did not bat an eye when I showed them the net bag of squirming ladybugs that came out of the package. (I won't speculate ...besides, DH and I have been finding and disposing of nearly three dozen brown marmorated stinkbugs that have crept in the house to overwinter so far.... :x )

I bought what I thought was the smallest quantity available based on best price I could find. Looking over the included literature, this company offers a package of 300 good for birthday parties, etc. which may have been sufficient...
...1500 may have been too many.... nutz: -- It does say you can keep them for up to two weeks in a home refrigerator where they will remain hibernate/remain dormant and can be released a little at a time. (And it came with a vial of ladybug food syrup, but you can see they found their own food :twisted: )
The Indoor Garden Patrol went to work right away on these yellowing peppers.
The Indoor Garden Patrol went to work right away on these yellowing peppers.
Some of them were spotted mating this morning:
image.jpg
image.jpg

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rainbowgardener
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Luv u, applestar! You are my role model. I have pretty well lost all my bug squeamishness outside in the garden, but I still have a hard time thinking about deliberately introducing bugs into my house. But I think it is great what you are doing. I think of my yard as an ecosystem and try to make it a complete and healthy, self-replicating one. Until I started reading your posts, it never really occurred to me to think of my house indoors as an ecosystem. I am planning, once it is spring and the earthworms rise to the surface again, to follow your lead and start introducing some into my plant containers.

The last picture is ladybugs busy making baby ladybugs for you? Never have to buy ladybugs again! :)

valley
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Lady bugs are kinda nice, not bugish, creepy crawly. But have you seen the stages they go through? On the way between stages they'll eat their fellows. Horror movie stuff.

I've never found lady bugs for sale, do you send away for them?

Richard

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I don't think a lot of people would have thought of that. I don't get aphids in the house but I do get the ants. You just can't win. They come in when it rains and floods their nests and they come in when it is too hot or too cold. I have slowed them by putting boric acid around my window sill and doors, but I have found them climbing up the column walking along the ceiling and entering from the top of the door. Clever bugs.

They are also getting wise to the terro container so I have to use a different ant bait or make my own.
When they do get in, I use windex. It kills the workers and halts the trail for a little while.

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Yep, they do come in from unexpected routes. I just use soapy water on the workers BEYOND the bait station on the trail. Often just a small pail of soapy water and a wad of paper towel, wipe-rinse-wring and repeat.
valley wrote:I've never found lady bugs for sale, do you send away for them?
In this case, just used amazon

1500 Live Ladybugs - Good Bugs - Ladybugs - Guaranteed Live Delivery! by Bug Sales
Link: https://amzn.com/B00533KOIC/
(BTW I see the reason for not getting the 300 ct. they are nearly the same price.)

Since these were so lively (though admit I didn't count to see if there WERE 1500). I may get this spring's nematodes from the same company. 8)

valley
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I might try that,[buying some] I really like them, when we find one we take it slowly to the greenhouse or up to the plants in the window.

One year a long, while back there must have been a large release of Lady Bugs by the state, They were thick here in Christmas Valley all that spring and summer. They must overwinter because we still see them though not in that number.

Richard

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One of the reasons I keep having to replenish the Indoor Garden Patrol with new recruits awakened from the fridge reserves:
image.jpg
...those AWOL troops are BETWEEN the inside and outside panes. :? When the sun is shining nice and warm, they find their way between gaps and try to get outside. :roll: We have had some alternating fair weather and temp drops down to teens and low 20's and I don't know how many of the escapees managed to get back inside. :shock:

I think I discovered an alternative to smoke trail for finding drafty windows. :|

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I'm going to show some examples of their work. It's a little hard to differentiate the plant being discussed with "the jungle" effect going on, but in each case, it's the plant in the foreground -- stay with me :wink:

Here is an example of an amazing recovery. The older leaves of this Peppadew pepper plant yellowed and was completely defoliated and I pruned the the plant into just sticks. The ladybugs were released just as the new baby leaves were budding and unfurling with the result that the aphids didn't get the chance to congregate on the tender shoots:
Peppadew with new unblemished leaves
Peppadew with new unblemished leaves
This Hot Lemon pepper plant had been getting defoliated as well and the new buds had been so infested by aphids that some of them had shriveled and browned when the ladybugs arrived. (In fact it's one of the "yellowing peppers" in the OP photo). Now, it has been able to grow new leaves and are blooming enthusiastically. Typically when aphid infestation is present, the aphids will congregate inside and around the base of flowers, causing blossom drop and premature fruit drop:
Hot Lemon peppers blooming and setting fruit
Hot Lemon peppers blooming and setting fruit
This Scotch Bonnet pepper is struggling to grow new leaves. Most of the new leaves are crinkled which to me indicates severe aphid infestation was (and is still) present:
Scotch Bonnet with crinkled new leaves
Scotch Bonnet with crinkled new leaves
image.jpg (74.83 KiB) Viewed 5427 times
The Variegated Fish pepper in the background by the window is still managing to keep its leaves. It's possible the colder position by the window was helpful, as is the fact that the ladybugs tend to migrate to the window as mentioned above.

...It seems to me that there is a tendency for the ladybugs to ABANDON the tomato plants to the aphids no matter how badly infested -- I.e. Despite the full banquet of aphids. I keep putting them on the tomatoes and sometimes they even avoid the aphids when they encounter them, knocking them off the plant rather than eating them.... :?

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applestar
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Here's another example -- overwintering lemon verbena has always been an ant/aphid magnet. But you can see with the sunlight shining through the leaves that there are no aphids on this plant :D
Lemon Verbena
Lemon Verbena
Lemon verbena also begins to wake up around now, but typically, the tiny new buds and shoots are covered in aphids and often die because the ants also begin to move their aphids with the alternating thaw. :evil: I see ant traffic on the plant but there is also a ladybug patrolling it. :twisted: This one is coming along nicely.

(Don't mind the yellow clips -- they are bending the branches down to encourage new buds on the interim bare stems to grow and to keep the height of the plant down to fit under the lights :wink: )

BTW -- I was "ape-catching" some of the aphids from a badly infested tomato plant (Pit Viper, the Larger) to reduce the aphid pressure and found a ladybug crouched under one of the upper leaves. So it's there but does not seem to be making significant dent in the aphid population. :?

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Yesterday, I discovered a motionless ladybug on a tomato stem clutching what looked like a pink cocoon attached to the stem. To me, it instantly spelled trouble because it sure looked like a parasitic wasp cocoon, and I had heard of ones that infest ladybugs. I tried to ply the cocoon off, and as soon as I touched it with a tool, the ladybug that I thought was dead moved -- weakly thrashing it's legs. Worse and worse! :eek:

Well I wasn't leaving it out in open to hatch out, so I gently got the cocoon and the protesting ladybug off and put them in a jar with paper towel rubber banded on it for vented cover. I want to see what it looks like when it comes out.
image.jpg
I found this apt description and more info:
But University of Montreal graduate student Fanny Maure and her colleagues noticed that even after D. coccinellae larvae burrow their way out of ladybugs' bellies, the ladybugs stay alive, partially paralyzed but twitching occasionally.
https://www.livescience.com/14706-ladybu ... ction.html
The article gives on to explain that they experimented and found out that the ladybug will defend the cocoon from predators....

valley
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Greetings applestar, I just read the above post. Did wasps or a wasp, hatch from the cocoon?

Richard

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applestar
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No this one hasn't eclosed (well that's the word for butterflies and moth emerging from chrysalis and cocoons -- I wonder if it is for wasps too?) yet, but I examined a ladybug that has been clinging to the curtain in the same spot for the past week and it had a slightly harder and browned pupa which I put in the same jar -- though I ended up pulling the ladybug off. I also checked a ladybug stuck to the window casing, and this one had a pupa that been popped open on the end and empty (I'll post a photo of that later)

...so it stands to reason that there were more infested ladybugs and the wasps are most likely already loose in the house. :shock:

Debating whether to contact the supplier.... :?

Also planning to find out if this wasp is ladybug specific paracite... I wish they would paracitise stinkbugs! :hehe: (probably no such luck though)

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I saw the wasp flying around in the jar a couple of days ago. I took a picture but couldn't get a good focused shot.

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So far this Spring we have had great success is a viable ladybug population on it's own. My okra and peppers are currently growing pretty much aphid free!! This is the first Spring where we haven't had the problem....yet.

I guess only time will tell if they eat up all the aphids, and fly off to someone else's aphrid ridden garden. Who knows, but while they are here they are welcome to stay!

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Discovered these ladybug eggs today on one of the containers in the Garage V8 Nursery 8)
image.jpg
image.jpg (45.94 KiB) Viewed 4897 times
. There was this much older juvie too :clap:
image.jpg

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By the way, I noticed heavy aphid infestation on the inner leaves of pak choi I planted outside in the patio windowboxes, so I reached to squish them with my fingers and was frustrated by the narrow leaf rosette interior where my finger wouldn't fit. I was looking closer and wondering if I should get some kind of a tool when I realized many of the aphids are already getting bloated due to Aphid Mummy Maker wasp predation. :twisted:

:-() Love my GARDEN PATROL !! :-()

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I think I'm going to wrap up this thread since the indoor plants are starting their annual migration to the great outdoor vacationland. :D

Today, I spotted two ladybug larvae and a pupa on the tomato seedlings that are already outside and a seedling that is in the garage V8 Nursery. So some of them have been successfully breeding.

Fortunately, in addition to the protein food that came with the ladybugs, each of the growing areas in the house had some kind of flowers blooming:
1) Mexican mint marigold, tomatoes and peppers, lemon and (orchid and chenille plant but I don't know if that counts)
2) overwintered bolted lettuce and arugula
3) early planting of cumin that bolted, zebra plant flower stalk, peppers, eggplant, Mexican mint marigold
4) geranium
5) peppers, poinsettia, "thanksgiving" cactus that blooms sporadically through winter...
Maybe that helped?

I'm definitely doing this again -- order 1500 or so around mid-late January, keep in fridge and dole them out, try to have beneficial insect attracting flowers and other pollen rich blooms open to encourage mating and egg laying.

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I'm resurrecting this thread for the 2014-15 Winter :()

My Winter Indoor Tomatoes and Overwintered Peppers that were not left in the garage to go dormant but were brought inside to finish maturing their fruits started to be seriously affected by TRM (tomato russet mites)*, possibly two spotted mites, and aphids (on peppers in particular as usual). So I decided to take advantage of a lull in the December weather to order ladybugs and, this time, greenlacewing (GLW) eggs.

First time with GLWs so this will be a learning experience -- atm I'm waiting to see this very small portion start to hatch....

The hibernating Ladybugs were looking dead in their net bag as usual, but the first wave I distributed among the plants woke up and got busy right away. :twisted:
image.jpg
...can you see the shadows inside the folded pepper leaves where more ladybugs are congregating? That's where the worst infestation of aphids are. Very difficult to hand pick because the new leaves are delicate and easily bruised by rough handling and susceptible to burning from even milder soap solutions.

I'm keeping the rest of them in the cold garage in stasis and bringing them out (well, IN actually) as needed, though my understanding is that it won't be possible to keep the GLW in storage too long.

-------
* Subject: 2014-15 Who's growing Winter Indoor Tomatoes this year?
applestar wrote:Now, HERE is a sad photo of the Maglia Rosa in the KFC bucket. It has mostly succumbed to the TRM attack.

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applestar
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Yesterday, I took an inventory of currently blooming and soon/eventually to blossom plants in the indoor garden, one or more of which can hopefully supply pollen needed to sustain the adult stage of these insects.

- tomato
- fuchsia
- orchid
- pepper
- jasmine
- basil
- avocado
- Meyer lemon
- cucumber
- peas
- lettuce (starting to elongate... Hopefully bolting)
- firetail chenille (do they produce pollen?)

...unfortunately none of them are umbelliferous which I always thought of as the beneficial insect attractants/feeders. So in case this might be needed, I scattered some cilantro seeds in some if the pots. If it gets warm enough in some of the plant areas, hopefully, they will bolt. (Hmmm.... I just thought of another area that might tend to be warmer... I think I'll sow some more there 8) )

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AppleStar, are you living with these critters, indoors?! I mean, these are your indoor garden plants that you are trying to protect, right?

I can understand why enhanced security may be needed.

Image

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applestar
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LOVE the funny, DigitS -- where did you ever find it? :lol:

Well, I don't believe in fumigating my house with poisons, so some bugs do wander in. Nothing horrid like roaches -- I've had my share of those when I lived in apartments in my youth :x -- but the usual suspects like ants, rarely silverfish, etc. Spiders have their place, and creepy as they are, house centipedes are tolerated when they venture out in the open which might be maybe three times a year. Most of the fruit-fly invasion originate from inadequately inspected supermarket produce. Stinkbugs almost always find their way in to stay warm in the winter... And in the summer time, mosquitoes, flies, and moths sneak in when the doors are opened. We have cats, and, I hate to admit it but, even though they are indoor cats, they still somehow get fleas....

On the other hand, in the summer time, we also BRING IN butterfly caterpillars.., mostly Monarchs but other species, too. If you've been around Helpful Gardener Forums for a while, you've seen me happily describing raising over 100 butterflies.

Plants in the house inevitably means pests like aphids, fungus gnats, scale insects, mites, and occasionally whiteflies. I don't "sanitize" the plants before bringing them in either, so there are any number of soil denizens in the pots, too. But they stay IN the soil for the most part except for the fungus gnats -- oh and occasional crane fly hatchlings (which are greedily hunted down by the kitties :twisted: ).

So ... Personally, I see nothing wrong or weird in releasing good bugs that help out :D and are not inclined to bite you, buzz around you or around your bedside lamp at night, or land on your food. :evil: Besides, they are a better solution for my sanity's sake, and my time is better spent taking care of other aspects of indoor gardening. :cool:

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I dug up and potted a nice celery before the freeze and am keeping it on the cooler floor level in the family room along with a rosemary, an overwintering (semi-dormant) Donkey pepper, a citrus, and a few other plants. (a.k.a. "Cool Gang") There's a massive aphid infestation going on in the celery so I poured a good dozen or so ladybugs in the dense foliage and closely standing stalks, and they are hard at work. O:)

I brought a couple of orchids that are starting to bloom from their bloom-coaxing area ("Winter Paradise") to the display area in the family room ("Winter Wonderland"). They tend to get attacked by scale insects in the flowers that are difficult to treat, but I noticed that the ladybugs moved in to patrol the flowers even before I needed to do anything -- :twisted:

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I have to ask why don't you soap/water spray the plants before bringing in? Just a light spray, clean off dead leaves and stuff etc. Cleaning up doesn't get rid of everything, but gets a few things out of the way.
As you have plant areas, I can understand more crawly things finding all-you-can-eat buffet tables (plants) and nice temps. As for me, most of my living, plant start and weaving is stuffed into 1200 sq ft, so not much [extra] space! I have brought chives pots in Feb to get a good start for early spring picking. A couple had aphid hatches from H...L. When I saw I was losing without chemical warfare, just trash baggied the plants/dirt.

Ah, the joys of living with plants!

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I spray-wash the foliage with water and brush dirt off the outside of the pots before bringing in, but I want to see if preserving the micro- and some if the macro-organisms on the phytosphere (both phyllo -leaves- and rhizo -roots- ) can actually be beneficial. So far, the main problem I have wondered about is the difficulty in maintaining a sustaining micro-foodweb and circle in a small given space -- much like it's harder to maintain a small aquarium than a larger one. I try to compensate by watering with aerated compost, some fertilizer, but mostly UCG, beverage container and rice/grain/sprouts rinse water, and occasionally a bit of molasses, Epsom salts, and/or alfalfa pellets. ...and of course an earthworm in every container. :mrgreen:

One of the reasons I titled this thread like I did is that there are natural "specialists" -- we no longer eat bugs off grass stalks, and there are other predators much better equipped and naturally designed to tackle the pest insects and micro-organisms.

It seems to me that somewhere along time, consumers have been convinced that our houses must be "99.5% germ-free" and any creepy crawlies must be smoke bombed into submission, that merits of certain persons in the house is somehow determined by how "well kept" and "clean" it is. I don't know what else accounts for the reflexive response to mention of "bugs in the house" :wink:

Really, these ladybugs are very unassuming. They quietly and incessantly crawl on the plants and along the pot edges, they rest still during the night in the dark -- so still I'm surprised when they wake up and begin their patrol after I turn on the lights. Yes they sometimes wander off into the curtains and window casing and surrounding walls and need to be coaxed back. (But they do not fly into food or are "bite-y" as reported when describing the Asian ladybugs that invade and hibernate in homes.)

I have been checking for the last few days, thinking I might release a few more for the start of the New Year, but every location I looked already had a sentry marching around or claiming a plant as their post. :D

Also, happily, it does seem like some of the tomatoes that went down due to TRM (tomato russet mites) are recovering and growing fresh new shoots, which hopefully means there ARE some predatory mite population here. Question now is how to make them available to the other areas that are being devastated by TRM. So far, it seems like the plants that I left the dying leaves on to shrivel are the ones that are coming back. Does that mean, in removing the yellowing leaves and disposing them to "keep tidy", I'm also disposing the predatory mites and keeping them from resuscitating the plants? :|

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Beneficial insects need water too. People don't realize that. The adults actually feed on the nectar and pollen of the plants while the larvae mostly feed on the aphids on the trap plants.

I have blooming plants year nearly round alyssum, cuphea, fennel, marigolds, and lavender multifida. Mexican mint marigold is a seasonal and rare bloomer so it does not provide a lot of nectar. Can you grow buckwheat? It grows fast as a cover crop and flowers in 6 weeks. It was visited regularly by bees and parasitic wasps. Just don't let it go to seed. Lobelia would be a long blooming plant that might work. It doesn't work for me because it is short lived in the heat.

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applestar
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You are right imafan.
On days that I don't get around to giving my plants their daily morning misting, I tend to find the ladybugs swimming in the buckets and other containers of water and have to rescue them. :roll:

I wonder if the ladybugs are after the phal pollen? I keep seeing them on the flowers. Didn't you say they produce a lot of pollen?
image.jpg

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applestar
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Ladybug Patrols are on-going :-()
image.jpg
...in the top photo, you can see aphid infestation on the leaves to the top right if you click/tap and see the enlarged photo. This and other peppers that are just unfurling post-hibernation new leaves would have a very hard time if the aphids are not controlled.

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Proof is in the photos! :-()
-- I didn't put them there just before the photo shoot. These were all instances of my finding them -sometimes days later- doing their thing and marching their protective detail. LOVE MY LADYBUG INDOOR GARDEN PATROL :()

Image

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applestar
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Look what I found yesterday! :D
image.jpg
There were a few more but I think I accidentally brushed against them :x

I hope there are some other mated couples laying eggs. This is one of the last green fruits on top of a rapidly declining Orange Pixie in Cool Gang -- it's been down to 50's°F here at tabletop level, so on the floor it's probably even colder and stressing the already TRM infested plant. It gave us about half dozen tasty fruits. Since it's a prime spot in front of the vertical double T-12 shop light fixture, I'll probably replace it with one of the overwintered peppers that I'm going to try to revive by bringing inside.

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When we went to visit my brother's family the other day, I took some of the hibernating ladybugs out of storage and poured the dead-looking beetles in a small clear deli container I prepared by cutting vent slits in the clear lid. I held the container in my hands during the one hour car ride, and noticed that the ladybugs had awakened and was clustering above my fingers that were holding the container from either side.

So as an experiment, I shifted/turned the container 1/4 counter clockwise, and watched in amusement as the ladybugs sluggishly then quickly scuttled to the new warm spots above my fingers. :D

I took them to show my three year old nephew and was prepared for my SIL to refuse to use them to protect her plants, but she told me she will keep them in the vegetable drawer of the fridge when I listed several choices of locations where they could be kept in hibernation, including the garage. Image

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This ladybug was patrolling/protecting the emasculated Bolivian Rainbow blossoms for my hot pepper breeding project. Image
image.jpg

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applestar
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Ladybugs are often patrolling these orchids :D
Image

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image.jpg
Looks like the next generation is at work :()

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Applestar,

How long will ladybugs last in the fridge? I will be getting an order sent soon, but don't need all of them until later, so I was wondering this, and figured that you would have an answer.

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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

I've kept them in reserve in the fridge for a couple of months -- some did die though.

I think you need to put them in a warm part of the fridge, maybe even the door, I put the netted bag they were in Ina veg/produce bag to provide humidity and supplied a moistened cotton ball which I replenished when dry.

I was using the small cube shaped dormitory/apartment fridge.

On second thought, I think it would be best if you can put them in the vegetable drawer

pepperhead212
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Location: Woodbury NJ Zone 7a/7b

Thanks applestar. I figured the warmer places would be best, and a section on my door with a cover on it is the warmest (originally for wine, but I have a bunch of bottles of oriental ing. in it!), so I'll put it in there.

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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

( :> sorry about all the cross-posting -- ignore if you've already read this elsewhere :> )

Subject: 2015-2016 Winter Indoor (Tomatoes, etc.) Garden
applestar wrote:Look at the new generation Winter Indoor Garden Patrol I found hanging around -- actually very rapidly roaming all over -- the Hungarian Szentes Feher Paprika (White from Szentes pepper) :-()

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Since I harvested the finally solidly turned red (from pale white/ivory/green) single fruit and it's on it's way out to rest up for the winter, I moved the little one to protect the current favorite from a beginning of an aphid infestation:

Subject: Learning • Practicing to Cross Breed Tomato Varieties
applestar wrote:WS x FFSlv F2-7

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...looks like I need to uppot to a final container :shock:

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rainbowgardener
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Location: TN/GA 7b

oh yay!! Looks like your ladybugs have been making whooppee!!



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