If you want to plant ladybugs in your garden, you're absolutely right. The cute dot beetles are not only popular lucky charms, but also effective pest killers. With a few simple precautions you can make your garden ladybug-friendly.
How can I introduce ladybugs to my garden?
In order to establish ladybugs in the garden, you should ensure a variety of plants, offer a variety of food sources such as flowering plants (fennel, chives, dill) and aphids and create protected winter quarters such as piles of leaves or insect hotels.
Feel-good atmosphere for ladybugs
In order for ladybugs to feel welcome and settle permanently, the following criteria must be met:
- As large a variety of plant species as possible
- Diverse food sources
- Shelters for the winter
Plant- and species-rich garden
For many beneficial insects, it is beneficial to keep the garden as natural and species-rich as possible. Because more plant diversity also promotes more animal and therefore more food diversity. Less use of chemical substances makes the garden a more pleasant and less dangerous place for all gardeners.
What ladybirds are certainly not attracted to are meticulously trimmed, homogeneous lawns and boxwood trees that have been precisely cut into shape. Beds with many different flowers and herbs and a lawn in which dandelions, daisies, clover and flowers can also bloom offer ladybugs valuable sources of nutritional supplements. Although they feed mainly on insects, preferably aphids, they also like to rely on pollen in times of need. Flowering plants that are worth planting for ladybugs and also for your own needs for beauty and kitchen enrichment include:
- Fennel
- Chives
- Dill
- Mint
- Chamomile
- Marigolds
- Poppies
- Dandelions
- Clover
Of course, you have to make sure to let these plants all flower so that they can develop their ladybug-friendly effects.
A natural, unsprayed garden naturally also encourages aphids, which in turn attract ladybirds, but are themselves undesirable. To get out of this dilemma, you can reserve a corner in the garden where aphids are allowed to spread freely and thus serve as a tempting buffet for ladybugs.
Creating winter quarters
In ladybird beetles, it is not the pupated larvae that overwinter, but rather the adults. They need protected hiding places for the cold season, which they survive in hibernation. With a little sensitivity, you can provide suitable winter quarters and keep the ladybirds in your garden even beyond the season. The little animals like to hide in piles of autumn leaves, in unplastered natural stone walls or in all sorts of cracks in the house. You can also offer the ladybugs an insect hotel (€23.00 on Amazon) as a winter quarters.
