I'm not sure what state you live in, but if you have a home depot, they carry them in the late spring and summer. Also, if you go to GardensAlive.com they carry alot of organic things, as well as, ladybugs, lacewings, and preying mantis.

If you want your ladybugs to stick around for your daughter's party and thereafter, make sure you have something for them to eat when you release them, else they will all fly away, or at least out of eyesight, looking for food. To the best of my knowledge, there are commercial preparations of something to feed them as they are released, so they want to stay around. Ask whoever you get your lady bugs from if they carry something. If not, then I suggest you use Google, to get more info and find a source.

I'm in Kansas. I just went to home depot and they gave me the strangest look and said that they have NEVER carried bugs in their store. They were so rude about it too. Which is why I love Lowe's and avoid Home Depot. Thanks for the suggestion though, that would've been great if they had them.

Good idea about the food, dibbit, I'll definitely check into that.

Sorry about that, I live in Washington and they always have them here. Our local nursery carries them too. Try Gardens Alive, they also carry ladybug food. I bought some from them before and their ladybugs stayed around for many years and overwintered in my house (not that I wanted them in the house). I carefully put them out every spring. Home Depot was more convenient, but the ladybugs never stayed.

It was said:
"I bought some from them before and their ladybugs stayed around for many years and overwintered in my house"

Oops. Wrong conclusion.

The ladybugs one buys are Hippodamia convergens; these migrate elsewhere for winter quarters.

The critters that hung around your house during the winter are the Asian ladybug (Harmonia axyridis). These don't migrate but will stick around during the winter, and survive inside your walls.

Now I've got a delimma. I found a much cheaper source of ladybugs: growquest.com. But I've got a problem--they are very negatively rated on gardenwatchdog. Mostly on garden products--but a large amount on items just not being shipped and the owner seems extremely rude to his customers, if what they said can be believed (which I don't see why not)... The other places want about 14 bucks for what he charges 5.5 for. The phrase "you get what you pay for" is ringing in my ears...

I'm not sure what type of ladybug Gardens Alive sells, but they call them "sta home" ladybugs....and they did!

Thanks, I didn't know the difference. I was just frustrated that the other ones seemed to disappear. The gardens alive variety were the first ones I bought a few years ago and I was happy with them.

They seem like a professional company, I ordered through their catalog, before I knew they were online.

I checked gardensalive out on GWD and it didn't have a real great rating. So I decided not to order from them. If I needed them just vaguely in the future, I probably would have. But I need them in less than 1 week. So I ordered from buglogical, Inc. Funny thing is, growquest said they would charge "just over $22.00" for 2-day air shipping and buglogical only charged $13. Even though I paid more for the same amount of ladybugs, I actually paid less in the long run. Hopefully these guys like my garden and decide to hang out for a while. I'll let you know if they show up in good condition or not.

Sarah

My ladybugs arrived today. They all seem alive, even though the box had the side smashed during shipment. I'm supposed to put them in the fridge and release them slowly but I'm concerned that my fridge will freeze them. It's from the 60's or something and some parts of the fridge freeze and others don't. The creepy thing is, they are in a bag a few feet from me and I can hear them.

Usually they tell you to release them in the evening. I've only heard of them going in the fridge if you don't want to release them right away. They may be thirsty, so you could spray them with a spray bottle with water in it. Don't drench them.