Totemic Posted December 28, 2014 Share Posted December 28, 2014 I love organic gardening, and never use any pesticides on any plants. When I started growing cannabis indoors however, I was forced to use pesticides, especially to control red spider mites. In nature, it's an eat or be eaten world, with no pesticides, and that got me researching predator insects that love aphids, white fly, and most of all spider mites. So the result was that the common ladybug is best suited for this job, but I can't see myself going on a bug hunt to find enough of these little beetles to be effective. Go and look for these, and you'd be surprised just how hard they are to find. Then there is also no place where you can buy them "off the shelf" in South Africa. But, it is actually easy to get your own sustainable supply of ladybugs going right in your back yard, for the price of a store bought head of Celery. We all always chuck the base of the celery in the bin, but you can regrow it. Here is how you can do this: www.17apart.com/2012/02/growing-celery-indoors-never-buy-celery.html I did this 6 months ago in mid Winter, planted out the plant to a sunny spot in spring, and I now have an almost 2m flowering Celery plant. To the point though; aphids just can't resist the juicy soft stems of the Celery plant, and if you leave them to proliferate, soon various insects arrive, but one in particular makes themselves home. The ladybug. The plant will soon be teaming with what seems to be a few different insects, but in actual fact they are all ladybugs in different stages of their development, and all eating as many aphids as they can. This one plant in my garden is producing enough ladybugs for the entire neighborhood I'm sure, and there are plenty left to service any indoor environment. Some further reading on ladybugs: http://www.lostladybug.org/files/9%20LLP%20All%20About%20LadybugsPDF.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest grunterfish86 Posted December 28, 2014 Share Posted December 28, 2014 Awesome , thanks T much appreciated! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dabtzar Posted December 28, 2014 Share Posted December 28, 2014 Thanks for that. I have hundred of them in my yard, just wasnt sure they were the right ones Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fire Posted December 29, 2014 Share Posted December 29, 2014 i dont even want to tell use how hard i looked for these bugs...i always struggled with spider mites specially outdoors i managed to control out in veg stage with sunlight liquid and water but once in flowering its a battle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Garethleauk Posted December 29, 2014 Share Posted December 29, 2014 Such nice info thanks so much my man Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StickyMo Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 Mulling an idea for an organic celery plant in a wheeled pot. Thoughts Totemic? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Totemic Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 A wheeled pot? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Totemic Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 Definitely a good idea, especially for larger pots. Organic mixes can get heavy! What a cool idea to recycle the bin of the vacuum Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dabtzar Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 Something like this is easier to handle. I used them in a set up I did. But mine I made from Maine ply and castor wheels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Totemic Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 I think the better idea would be to keep them outdoors and take individual beetles indoors. 10-20 beetles would work well in an average indoor environment size. The beetles live for quite a while, and do return back to the celery plant while they have babies there. I have noticed that they nurse them by carrying aphids to the larvae, so taking the whole plant and moving it around from outdoor to indoor, I reckon you risk serious indoor contamination. I'm just not sure what effect your other pesticides will have on the beetles. I use no pesticides in an outdoor environment, and very little indoors, limiting it to neem oil only really. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Totemic Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 The more ladybugs the better! You will find though that if you keep "loosing" ladybugs there simply isn't any food for them, I.e. no bugs you want to get rid of so great. They will leave to find food. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StickyMo Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 That's the consensus, no food - no ladybugs. I may just plant one at each outside corner of the structure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Totemic Posted December 19, 2018 Share Posted December 19, 2018 I thought I'd bring an old thread back to life. Every year in my garden ladybugs breed like crazy. This year they have taken a liking to my coliander. I will be collecting larvae and eggs this year and set up and research a captive breeding program. They have a verocious appetite for the most common plant pests and have allowed me to garden pesticide free for years. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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