Ladybug Picnic

In an attempt to obliterate some aphids that attempted to stage a coup on my nannyberry viburnum, I bought a huge bag of ladybugs at the nursery. I was kind of freaked out by the idea of driving around with a bag of bugs, but my kid was THRILLED. Turns out that for a science-interested kid, a whole mess of ladybugs is a great summertime diversion. My kid insisted on carrying the bag of bugs on his lap in the car the whole way home.

Ladybugs are predators of the best kind. They eat aphids and Colorado potato beetles and other nasties you don’t want in your garden. We watched our ladybugs eat the aphids off the viburnum leaves and watched them battle ants WWE-style. (The ants were protecting the aphids b/c they liked the sweet stuff secreted by the aphid eggs.) It was like Wild Kingdom in the garden for about two days straight.

So, this is my recommendation for a fun garden project: buy your kid a couple thousand ladybugs and watch them go to town. Ladybugs are available in the refrigerated section of your local garden center, or you can find them online; GardensAlive has a package of 900 fertile ladybugs (hello, larvae!) for $13.95.