What Do Ladybugs Eat ~ You Ask?

So you're wondering ~ What do ladybugs eat ?

Ladybugs sniff out aphids and devour them! We once watched a garden ladybug suck in aphid after aphid, until it could eat no more. Well, at that sitting, anyway.

Both ladybug adults and larvae eat pests like aphids, mites or small caterpillars and are enormously beneficial to our country gardens.

Ladybug larvae are most active from May through July and the adults thereafter eagerly seek out aphids and other garden pests.

Shown here is a ladybug feasting on aphids. She (or he) gives answer to our question: What do ladybugs eat ? very clearly!

Somewhat looking like a creature from outer space, the Praying Mantis is one among an elite crew of helpful insects you should welcome into your garden.

Dragonflies skim the surface of water, eating mosquito larvae. Now that's what I call a helpful insect!

Green Lacewings eat aphids, mealybugs, white flies & scales, Spidermites and thripes among other bad bugs.

Hover flies (not pictured) look like dark wasps or bees. They feed on fruit tree spider mites, caterpillars & green flies.

While Bees don't eat other insects, they do pollinate flowers and trees. Fruits & vegetables won't form unless their flowers are first pollinated, making bees not only vital to our gardens, but the entire planet as well!

• What do ladybugs eat ? A single ladybug may eat over 5,000 aphids in its lifetime
• Also called lady beetles or ladybird beetles
• Ladybugs can be Yellow, pink, orange, red or black and usually have very distinctive spots
• Noxious fluid seeps out of a ladybug's joints when disturbed, which wards off predators
• Adults of some species spend the winter clustered together under leaf debris or rocks
• If you squeeze a ladybug it will bite you, but the bite won't hurt...wanna try it?
• Ladybugs chew from side to side and not up and down
• The male ladybug is usually smaller than the female
• 72,000 to 80,000 ladybugs can fit in a gallon jar
• A ladybug beats it's wings 85 times per second when flying
• An average ladybug lifecycle is only 4 to 8 weeks

You can always buy ladybugs to turn lose on garden pests if there aren't enough in your area.

Hippodamia convergens, a medium sized orange and black species is commonly sold for biological control of aphids.

Buy ladybugs at greenhouses and nurseries or purchase them through mail order below. We have done this in the past and they arrive safe and sound, right to your door!