This year, our garden has been inundated with lady bugs. That is a very good thing. About three years ago, I sowed lady bugs in our yard to jump start the population. Last year, with the harsh winter, the population started out very slowly in the spring. It has been a different story this year. I began noticing pairs of lady bugs very early in March, and they are now everywhere.
I am always finding insect eggs in the garden. It has been a learning process to determine which eggs are beneficial and which are bad. To help you out, here is a photo of some lady bug eggs. They are a bright orangish-yellow, oval shaped, and laid in a group.
The lady bugs will usually lay their eggs where there is a food source. In the photograph below, you can see one of our broccoli raab plants inundated with aphids. I don't feel the need to spray an organic pesticide on the plant, because you can see that our beneficial lady bugs have kindly laid some eggs right within the aphids. The lady bug larvae will devour the majority of these harmful aphids.
Last fall, to help the lady bugs overwinter, I purchased this lady bug shelter. I don't know if there is a true cause and effect relationship here, but I will say that my ladybugs did better this spring with the shelter, compared to last spring.
