That little black-and-orange alligator crawling across your leaf isn't a pest: it's a baby ladybug, and it's the best aphid killer in your garden.
Ladybug larvae look nothing like the adults. They're small, spiky, dark, and dotted with bright spots, and most people squash them on sight thinking they found something bad.
A single larva eats around 400 aphids before it's even grown. The adult it turns into clears roughly 5,000 more over its life. They take mites, scale, and mealybugs too. Pound for pound, the ugly larva out-eats the cute adult.
To keep them around, lay off the insecticide, which kills them faster than the aphids, and tolerate a few aphids so they have something to hunt. No pests, no ladybugs.
And skip the mail-order lady bugs too. Those are mostly wild-collected or the invasive Asian beetle, and they just fly off. Build the habitat and the natives show up on their own.
i've been planning hangouts for like this whole month as it i don't really care to be around other people but i can't stop LMAO why am i trying to schedule plans w 2 other people when i don't have time or the mental capacity๐ญ๐ญ๐ญ