It started with my arugula plant, and a hatchery of baby ladybugs that ravenously tore through the aphid population (thank goodness!). I know that sounds pretty gruesome, it was, but those aphids were coating every surface of the arugula. I could stand five feet away and watch little showers of aphids fall from the leaves. Gross.
Last weekend, at the farmers market, I bought a cilantro start (yaaay cilantro!) and a bundle of chard. When I started to put the chard into my bag, my friend stopped me, "There's a bug on your chard."
Indeed there was. Or, rather, an almost-bug. A ladybug pupa.
There was a second pupa attached to the other side of the chard stem, and when I got home I set the stem up on my windowsill so the ladybugs could emerge in peace.
Six days later, both pupas hatched into ladybugs. Here's the runt next to its pupa-husk.
Have you had much luck using ladybugs for pest control? What else do you do to battle aphids?
You might like:
~ Windowsill Arugula: The War on Aphids
~ Windowsill Arugula
~ Sprouts! Greens for the Winter
~ Farm Internship: Drawn by the Earth
White Wolf Summit Farmgirl, The Healthy Home Economist, and The Prairie Homestead!