The white roses were covered with aphids when I looked at them a few days ago. The kale that had been so hardy the last two years was struggling, and apparently the aphids were stunting it as well. I'd been meaning to do something about them, but my memory is terrible and I have very little faith in those homemade recipes for flower soap concoctions that never seem to wash away the bugs. I think I said something about wanting to get rid of aphids sometime this week, but it wasn't until the Mr came home from the hardware store with a giant bag of ladybugs that I had any reassurance that I'd actually said it out loud.
My beloved white Sugar Moon rose bush is just starting to bloom, despite the best efforts of the teeny bugs. It didn't look as bad as it did last week. Maybe they moved on. Nonetheless, that was where we started with the 1500 or so ladybugs who were quite interested in getting out of the bag they came in. They were very active, making it somewhat difficult to cut the bag open without injuring anyone. Eventually a mass of them had an exit and came pouring out of the bag, some onto Mr S-P's hands, some onto the rose bush. He split them between the roses, kale, tomatoes, and raspberries. They spread themselves thinner, several of them flying away. I hope they went to the front yard. There are plenty of flowers out there that could use some protection from pests.
I tossed the label from the bag into the recycle bin without reading to see how many square feet (or possibly acres or a fraction thereof) that that many ladybugs can cover. Or perhaps the real question is how many of them will stay in my yard and feed, and how many will bug out and populate the neighborhood. I hope they show at least a week's worth of loyalty to us, the ones who set them from from their mesh prison.
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