lotsa lovely ladybirds

arkonite_babe

I have lots of ladybirds in the rough grass area at the side of my house. I should have plenty for the garden if my little one can stop ladybird hunting and putting the poor things in jam jars :eek:

madmum33

I've just found about 20 ladybird larvae on my compost bin (I'm guessing they were on the choisya we just had to cut down as it was damaged when we had heavy snow ) Not sure what to do with them though, our garden has almost no plants in it at all at the moment!

teapot2

I wouldn't know a ladybird larvae if I stubbed my toe on it! What do they look like? Do they need plants to emerge from the larvae stage - if so could you not just put them in a park or a neighbours garden - assuming of course that you are urban?

We've still got lots of ladybirds in our garden and OH looks at me strangely as I stop the mower to move them to the edge of the grass rather than chop them up

Not keen on beetles generally except for ladybirds - must be the spots and colour

madmum33

I'd never seen any before, but knew what they were straight away from photos I'd seen. They weren't keen on being caught, and I think they need to munch alot of aphids before they become adults. I'll try to catch the ones I see and move them into a more promising area

Here's the google image page - they're black with yellow spots and not at all like the adults!
http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=ladybird%20larvae&btnG=Google+Search&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi

teapot2

Yikes - never knew thats what the larvae looked like, shall have to keep a watch out for those in the garden

teapot2

There was a mini film on Springwatch tonight about ladybird lifecycle and how they eat aphids. I didn't know ladybirds could have up to 3000 babies a year - mega.

Have now seen the larvae in action!