aphids in roses

[canelady]

Since March I have been spraying for aphids to keep them off of my roses, but they always come back. I'm thinking about trying ladybugs to keep them off of my roses. What do you think? I live in south Louisiana.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Yes Yes YES!

Scott

[estro]

I have a horrible aphids problem as well. they have invaded my peppers, my woodrose, and what was once my rose bushes. I sprayed numerous times with ortho's bug b gone. but they are still around or at least all the white egg looking spots on the underside of my leaves are increasing. my woodrose is now all stick from the spray but the bugs are not gone I don't know what to do. what did you mean by ladybugs? I'm about to up root my peppers and throw them out and start over.

[Garden_Gal]

what did you mean by ladybugs?

I think they meant buying lady bugs and setting them loose on your aphids to eat them all up.

Hey Scott! What's a good place to buy lady bugs?

Tell us about Lady Bugs and how they are beneficial to a garden.

[The Helpful Gardener]

There are several beneficial insects for the garden; ladybugs are the bug of the hour when it comes to aphids. Go through the link to Gardeners Supply (from our links page) and type in "ladybugs" on their site search.
They have a killer deal on ladybugs and lacewings (lay eggs on catepillars and kill them) in the same package for less than $40!

This is a great way to take care of the badguys and feed birds and other beneficials (like dragonflies).

Try it; you'll like it...

Scott

[petunialover]

be careful where you buy your bugs,
Years ago our local governmental authority purchased some lady(type) bugs that multuiplied like crazy, our entire three State area is flooded with these critters. I had to vacuum up 100's of them a day ALL Winter, from October through to June, our home was filled with these smelly pests who ate nary an aphid!

PL

[The Helpful Gardener]

Interesting; I've noticed we've seen increases in ladybug "infestations" in homes around here too. If you're getting population booms like that there must be a food source and the whole genus are predators (to my knowledge) so they're eating somebody...

I'll do some more homework and post it here...

Scott

[petunialover]

.we had literally thousands come into the vents on our roof, they filtered down and btw they bite and stink when crushed, we also got elderbigs too, lots of them, this year we are having a pro spray our home all around in an attempt to keep them down a bit.
I hate insectacide, and really want to kep my home organic, but there are limits.

PL

[petunialover]

Well, the jokes on us, we got our home insectacided all around the outside and they say this year we aren't getting the quasi-Ladies. We didn't get the cicadas either, but I'm not kicking!

PL