Ladybird, Ladybird Fly Away Home
Actually, don’t! Here’s a few tips on keeping these helpful visitors staying longer in your garden.
By Hanna Ashton-Lawson
After a few quiet years, it seems to be an excellent season for ladybirds in the garden!
Despite their sweet, spotted appearance, Ladybirds are fearsome predators in the garden, feasting on aphids, mites and scale. In fact, just one ladybird will consume 2,500 aphids in its lifetime (source: ABC). Another good reason to let nature balance itself out before applying pesticides.
The Foundation For National Parks and Wildlife and this excellent article from The Seed Collection have the following suggestions for attracting ladybirds to your garden and keeping them happy:
Plant herbs like coriander, dill and fennel.
Grow bright coloured flowers such as marigolds, sunflowers and zinnias. Ladybirds favour large flat flower heads and leaves, perfect for landing on and hiding eggs on too.
Include some local flowering natives.
Ensure you have water access in your garden, because ladybirds are thirsty bugs! A fun summer project could be setting up a watering station for bees and other pollinators. Check out Rural Sprout for some inspiration.
Avoid insecticides. Not only are they harmful to ladybirds themselves, removing their food sources means they’ll skip your garden on their rounds.
Provide bark and mulch for ladybirds to over-winter in.
There is often some worry in garden circles about “good” and “bad” ladybirds, and how to identify them.
The 28-spotted ladybird has more spots that are smaller in size, and their exterior is less shiny. They devour plants rather than aphids, especially enjoying those from the potato, bean and cabbage families.
Photo source: The Seed Collection
Left - a common spotted ladybird, and right - the pesky 28-spotted ladybird.
Finally, the fungus-eating ladybird needs a special mention. Often spotted at the end of the summer season when pumpkin plants and other warm weather crops are at an end, the fungus-eating ladybird does exactly as its name suggests. The arrival of these little creatures often signal that powdery mildew is present and that the plant is just about ready to be lifted and composted. Perhaps just leave them in just long enough for our yellow and black friends to enjoy a good feast!
Photo source: Ozanimals.com
If you have enjoyed this adventure with our friend the ladybird, you can get extra nerdy by delving into the CSIRO’s work in comparing all 6000 ladybird species!