Best flowers for ladybugs?

[CrazyConure]

I am going to Home Depot tomorrow to buy a lot of different seeds to attract ladybugs, and other benificial insects.

I only have about 7 empty containers that will be filled with ladybug flowers, so I need the highest flower in the ladybug's list.

 

[MaryMary]

Ladybugs are carnivorous. They're looking for aphids and other soft-bodied insects.

 

[LIcenter]

Tropical milkweed. You'll feed the ladybugs, and the monarch butterflies at the same time.

 

[Chuck]

You have ladybugs when you have aphids, not you have aphids when you have ladybugs. So, if you want ladybugs you must have aphids. So, you go out and buy seeds or plants that aphids like, to entice them into your garden??? Just so ladybugs will come.?? This makes no sense to me. It makes more sense to me to just keep the aphids from your plants in the first place, not invite them in so some other bug might or might not make a meal out of him. But if you really want to invite aphids into your garden get a Gaura plant/Whirling butterfly plant

 

[Plantdoctor]

You can buy plants to entice butterflies and bees.

But to buy a plant for aphids ,just to get ladybirds, is like buying some lettuce just to entice snails and suchlike,bit pointless.

 

[roadrunner]

For some reason the lady bugs in my garden like trees, such as my citrus and live oak and they love the Hibiscus, despite there being other plants, like milkweeds that have tons of aphids on them....I don't know why this is...

As for keeping them in your garden, one of the best things you can do is provide a place of heavy mulch, which provides habitat for the very hot parts of the day and also for hibernation in the winter.

However, if there is one plant that I noticed that really attracted them, it's Dill. Plant some dill.

P.S. It's also nice to occasionally spray water over the plants in the heat of the day to provide water for them, as well as other animals.

 

[CrazyConure]

Ladybugs need pollen as a source of food too. They don't just eat aphids.

 

[Plantdoctor]

To do what ?Make ladybird honey.?

Their diet is soft-bodied insects like greenfly, whitefly etc etc,

Never heard of them needing pollen to survive.

But you live and learn .

 

[Chuck]

Ladybugs need pollen as a source of food too. They don't just eat aphids.

Ladybugs are, besides aphid eaters, one of the pollinators every garden needs. They crawl around looking for aphids and do their pollination. They also eat pollen and nectar. The pollen has protein and the nectar carbohydrates. But to have ladybugs you must have a food source for their larvae and aphids are that food. Ladybugs will not reproduce if there are no aphids. If no aphids they just fly away. I prefer zero aphids and I still see ladybugs in my garden all the time just passing through. I never have aphids either
http://www.arkinspace.com/2010/08/strange-life-cycle-of-ladybug.html

 

[roadrunner]

Ladybugs need pollen as a source of food too. They don't just eat aphids.

Maybe that's why they were so attracted to my dill. I grew dill for the first time last year and it did attract tons of ladybugs, not only did it attract them, but they seemed to like laying eggs on Dill, because I also had tons of ladybug larvae on that plant.

 

[johnny canoe]

I stopped trimming the grass that is right up against the trunk of my trees. It's an area ladybugs like to lay their eggs in.

 

[Tetters]

Left to it's own devices, nature takes care of all the creatures - whether we see them as goodies or baddies is irrelevant. My idea is to plant as many varieties as possible, and - to a degree, put up with the creatures that use them. A good balance can then be achieved. There are, of course a few little blighters that I will go gunning for - like vine weevil grubs ....but I hate the idea of using poisons - nematodes are best.

Last year we were inundated with harlequin ladybirds here in Kent that had come in from the other side of the ''ditch'' as we call it. Nasty critters they are. They destroy our native ladybirds, bite like fury, and stink to high heaven. They cluster together in difficult to reach places to overwinter, and need to be vacuumed up and disposed of. They have bright yellow blood/guts which stains everything beyond repair, and when you suck them up into the vacuum cleaner they march straight out again unless you stuff up the spout. Horrible yuk.

@CrazyConure - pick plants with single flowers rather than double ones to attract the most attention from wildlife