My granddaughter loves ladybugs. I assume they are good for the garden, but how can I attract ladybugs to our garden so she can enjoy them? AT

I’m not exactly sure how it happened, but ladybugs are definitely thought of as one of the “cuter” insects to have in our gardens. Everyone just seems to like them. If they were more appropriately named Ravenous Aphid Killer Bugs, we might not find them in children’s books, but that’s a different article.

Technically, ladybugs aren’t really bugs. To an entomologist, bugs would be members of the order known as Hemiptera or True Bugs. Members of the True Bug family would include stink bugs, squash bugs, harlequin bugs, and leaf-footed bugs among others.

Ladybugs belong to the order Coleoptera, which includes all the beetles. In North America we have approximately 450 varieties of lady beetles. True bugs have piercing/sucking mouth parts while lady beetles have chewing mouth parts.

Not only are they cute for whatever reason, they are also great for your garden since in both the larval and adult stages of life they are voracious predators of other insects. They especially love to dine on aphids. An adult lady beetle can eat up to 50 aphids a day, so the next time you have an aphid problem on one of your plants, think about purchasing some lady beetles for a quick fix.

Lady beetles reproduce by what we call “complete metamorphosis” which differs from the “incomplete metamorphosis” we might see in a grasshopper for example. Grasshoppers are born basically small little grasshoppers which grow into adult grasshoppers through several growth stages we call instars as they grow. However, lady beetles (like many insects) begin life as an egg which hatches in the form of a larvae, they molt several times as they are developing, move on the the pupae stage, and then on to their final adult form we know as lady beetles.

Lady beetle eggs are yellow or orange and are usually deposited on leaves in clusters near an appropriate food source. Adult females can lay between 20 to over 1000 eggs during a 3-month period. These eggs hatch in about 5 to 7 days and begin to eat. To me, the lady beetle larvae look much more like what we would expect a predator insect to look like. They tend to have the same coloring but bear no resemblance to adult lady beetles.

They go through 3 developmental larval stages during a two-week period. The lady beetle larvae then attach themselves to a surface and remain in a pre-pupa stage for a couple of days before molting into full pupal stage. After a 5-to-8-day pupation, the adult emerges. This life cycle can be repeated 2 to 3 times a year.

One of the reasons we suggest leaving plant debris in your garden over the winter is because lady beetles as well as other insects including a variety of bees like to overwinter in this debris.

I mentioned you can purchase lady beetles at garden centers to use for pest control. This can be an appropriate strategy, but remember, once the food supply is gone, the lady beetles will move on in search of another food source.

A better and more long-term strategy would be to make your garden a place lady beetles would like to hang out. To do so, you just need to be sure plant flowers that would be attractive to lady beetles. Flowers that would be appropriate would include shallow flowers with nectar that is readily accessible such as alyssum, coriander, or dill.

Another strategy to help bolster your lady beetle population as well as all beneficial insects would be to minimize pesticide use in your garden. If you do indeed need to use a pesticide to tackle a particular pest problem, try to stick to the more targeted organic pesticides rather than the pesticides that tend to kill everything they touch. Pesticides that would be more lady beetle and beneficial insect friendly would include insecticidal soap or neem oil. Just be sure to spray in the early morning or late evening when the insects are not active. And, if you do find aphids in your garden, it won’t be long until you start seeing lady beetles.

Lacewings are another great insect to have in your landscape since they to feed on other insects. Oklahoma plays host to several species of lacewings. The adult is a pale green insect with large, clear, veined wings that rise above the body when they are resting. Adult lacewings primarily feed on nectar, but some species also have an appetite for small insects earning them the name of aphid lions in some circles. Again, providing sources for nectar and minimizing pesticide use will make your garden more able to sustain these and other insects that can help minimize your troubles with the insects we tend not to want in our gardens. See you in the garden.

You can get answers to all your gardening questions by calling the Tulsa Master Gardeners Help Line at 918-746-3701, dropping by our Diagnostic Center at 4116 E. 15th Street, or by emailing us at mg@tulsamastergardeners.org. Photo: Susan Ellis, Bugwood.org