Ladybugs

We have been dealing with an infestation of aphids for months now.  At first, we thought the cold would kill them off, but those things could out-stand a nuclear bomb!  So, after many sleepless nights staring at the computer screen trying to find one little ounce of information that would end my aphid nightmares (I was seriously having nightmares about getting swarmed by the darn things) ...enter stage left, ladybugs...

Apparently, aphids are like Double Chocolate Chip Fudge Cake to ladybugs.  They can eat up to 1000 aphids in a day (wonder what that much chocolate cake would do to me, ladybugs must have one heck of a metabolism)!!!!!  So, off I went on my search to find where to buy ladybugs.  Amazing, you can buy those little aphid eating boogers on amazon.com...what will they think of next!!

My precious little bag of predators arrived yesterday.  It was a little creepy holding a bag of 1500 crawling insects, but the kids sure did get a kick out of it!!

The instructions said to rinse the bag in cold tap water and refrigerate until they could be released at dusk...weird, but ok.  I don't care how weird it sounded, it worked!!!!! The little buggies slowed down so we could just pour them right over the most infected area of the garden.

I'm not sure if they like their new home, or they just ate too much cake and couldn't move, but they were still here this morning...I'll let you know if it works...