Gardening 101 -- Nom, nom, nom

Today's blog will be a pictorial. A few weeks ago I mentioned that my Rose of Sharon bush had TONS of aphids, those life-sucking insectoids that can damage a plant even killing it.

Now, I have no problem with using pesticides, but it had been so windy that I didn't want to take the chance. Besides, I had discovered an endless supply of ladybugs on my walkies.

Every morning, ladybugs climbed to the tops of weeds, grasses and anything else they were near to 1) warm up, 2) drink dew, or 3) I don't know, I'm just making this up as I go along.

Anyhoo, all I need to do was collect them. So one Saturday I took a nylon bag thinking I would capture them and dance home with a bunch of voracious eaters. But I hadn't taken into account their inability to stay captured. In fact, they keep slipping out of the holes in the bag and I felt like I was herding cats.

 In hindsight, the leg of an unused pair of hose would have worked better! So I finished drinking my water and slipped the bag into the open mouth of my water bottle, covering the hole to keep them from escaping. Once home I placed the eight ladybugs on my plant. Two weeks later, the ladybugs are gone . . . and so are the aphids.

Even though my plant is aphid-free, it doesn't mean the buggers won't return. But with luck, the ladybugs got busy and worked on their circle of life.

And though their larvae are pug-ugly, they are also voracious eaters of aphids. So don't kill these ugly critters!

Later, Peeps!