Information About Ladybugs:
USE: Ladybugs love to eat aphids and can eat up to 50 in one day. They eat only insects and cause no harm to vegetation.
RECOMMENDATIONS: Ladybugs should be kept in a refrigerator with temperatures ranging from 35-40 degrees Fahrenheit. Bugs received from March through May should not be stored more than 2 or 3 days. After May, they may be stored 2 or 3 months.
During the months of March through May, it is not uncommon to find dead ladybugs inside the container. We have included extra bugs for this reason.
LIFECYCLE: During the spring, ladybugs will lay clusters of 10 to 50 yellow eggs on the underside of leaves. Within five to seven days, the larvae emerge as adults and will eat around 400 aphids during their two week life cycle. In the winter, the ladybugs migrate into the mountains and lie dormant. In the spring, they resume searching for food, mating, and laying eggs.
These ladybugs have been fed a special protein diet which makes them realize that they have already reached the lowlands and should continue feeding immediately. This stops their natural instinct to fly when released.
Information About Lacewings:
USE: Green lacewings are predators of insects and mites of many species. These pale green insects are natural enemy of aphids, leaf-hoppers, mites, mealybugs, thrips, whiteflies, all types of butterfly and moth eggs, and caterpillars.
LIFE CYCLE: Adult lacewings grow to 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch long. There wings are transparent and pale green and have bright metallic gold eyes (also known as "Golden Eyes"). They have a fluttering flight characteristic, and occasionally rise from plants when they are disturbed, especially at dusk. Adult Lacewings are not normally predaceous, but feed on nectar, honeydew, and pollen. Lacewings lay very small pale green eggs on hair like stalks that they attach to the bark of trees or on the underside of leaves. Several days after that process the Lacewings larvae hatch from these eggs.
The larvae, which are active searchers, will immediately begin moving over the plant in search of food. These larvae are grayish-brown in color, and 3/8 of an inch long, and have pincher-shaped jaws which they use to seize their pray and suck the juices from its body. They are called "Aphid Lions" because they are such avid aphid eaters (eating up to 1,000 aphids per day). They also consume a variety of cottony-cushion scale, citrus mealbugs, and eggs of caterpillars. Maturing in two to three weeks, the Lacewing larvae spin a little cocoon of silken thread. The adult Lacewing appears five days later by precisely cutting a round hinged lid on the top of the cocoon. This cycle repeats itself.
The life cycle of Lacewings is directly influenced by climate conditions. Under summer conditions a complete life cycle can occur within a month, thus many generations can occur each year. Lacewings live through winter as adults, but with difficulty; they should be recolonized each springs. Do not feel discouraged because you have difficulty locating the Lacewings once they are released. The Larvae are very secretive and do most of their foraging at night when water is available.
DIRECTIONS: The Lacewings are shipped to you as eggs, and will probably be hatching or very close to hatching by the time you receive them. The Lacewing eggs are mixed with moth eggs and rice hulls for food. The rice hulls have two functions: the first is when the Lacewings hatch, they are very hungry! The Lacewings are so hungry that they often resort to cannibalism if there is no food source available). The rice hulls deliver separation so that they do not have the desire to eat each other. The second reason is that since they are so small, it is easier to distribute them if they are in a carrier to give you more volume to work with. 10,000 Lacewing eggs would fit on a thimble!
They should be sprinkled around your plants. If you are putting them in trees, you can place small amounts in paper drinking cups and staple them to the leaves. The Lacewing will crawl out and up into the tree or plant. The larvae will feed for about 3 weeks, then they will roll up into a little white pupae and emerge as adult in about 1 week ready to lay eggs! Finding the recently hatched Lacewing larvae may be difficult, remember they are very small, about the size of the gray or pale green egg that they came from, so it may difficult to see them.
WATER WASHING: In the event your plants are already infested with aphids or other harmful insects. It is advisable to "water wash" your plants first. This involves spraying the plants with water, thus knocking the insects to the ground. The lacewing larvae with establish themselves more quickly and prevent further re-infestations.
