Nice photo essay!

I just introduced some lacewing and mantis eggs to my garden. Too bad it'll be hard to see how well they took for a long time, as they're both tiny when they hatch.

Ladybugs are voracious, but unfortunately, they're also very mobile. So if they clear out your area, they'll move onto someone else's patch. But they're very effective hunters while they're around!

I thought about buying some mantis eggs but I was worried about them eating the pollinators! When I was a little kid bees in the city were plentiful now I only see 1 carpenter bee... I am starting to think it's the same carpenter bee year after year ;)

So yes I recall the large mantis that was in my yard being quite the hunter... Everytime I found him somewhere else in the garden, he had a bee of some sort. I actually have a bit of a fly problem now... fungus gnats... black flies... fruit flies etc. since I am trying to compost veggie matter scraps rather than throw it out to add to a landfill. The gnats can be the worse especially when you are not paying attention and you breath in a bunch through your nose! Ack /cough sneeze... I thought that perhaps the mantis would alleviate this issue but I went the route of buying nematodes (Steinernema feltiae)since I should be seeing results in about 1 generation rather than waiting for the mantis to get larger and picking off a fly every now and then. The nematodes should get straight to the root of the problem in the compost pile. I also picked up 1/2 pound of red wiggler worms to hasten the compost process.

Today I noticed this mini type of spider mite attacking the adult fungus gnats so this is an added bonus!

This was as close as I could get while still sort of keeping the camera in focus...

Here are the mites on the fungus gnats

Impressive little mites! Those cost a pretty penny to purchase, so count yourself lucky!

I am starting to think it's the same carpenter bee year after year ;)

Methinks you need more flowers ;) What does your yard (not garden) look like? Bees love clover. I also let the violets grow in my lawn, although they only bloom in early spring. The bees also love my rhododendron, which blooms profusely. I also let Creeping Charlie, which most people hate, grow wherever it doesn't cause any problems; it flowers for a long time and I've seen bees visit it a'plenty. I always have a very sizable bumblebee population.

The more food you provide them throughout the growing season, the higher their populations will be when your plants start to bloom.

If you're looking for something to plant specifically for bees, consider sweet clover. I once hiked through a field of the stuff and it was practically blanketed in bees. Note that unlike white clover, which grows well in non-chemically-treated lawns, sweet clover is a tall plant. Oh, and all clovers are nitrogen fixers, like beans and peas. So think of them as fertilizer-creating, crop-fertilizing aids. :)

I live in NYC so sadly the concrete jungle does not provide much for our bee friends... I did buy 1/4th pound of crimson clover seeds to plant in between all the large trees/bushes/vines in the yard... but I bought them too late...

I also picked up the inoculant for both clover and assorted beans/peas... I placed some inoculant in the soil so it is there when I plant the clover but I won't be doing that until late summer/early fall. I read that is an ideal time to plant the clover since it is one of the first plants to come up in early spring and will most likely be blooming by the time my other plants wake up from their dormant slumber.

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As you can see I really do not have a lot of room to work with. I'd love to plant stuff on my garage roof but I am worried about water damage etc since the garage is quite old. I did think about drilling some holes in a block of wood and purchasing a few osmias and letting them do their thing but again I was a little late with the idea. There is a local place that sells them but they told me all they would be able to ship would be eggs but then I would run the risk of knocking them off of their pollen which would endanger them when they hatch next spring.

Just about the only clover that I currently have in the yard is a native species with yellow flowers that I have conveniently relocated with a host of other kinds of moss. I also planted dill, basil, nasturtium, crimson clover, and marigold seeds amongst other transplants. Everything seems to have taken root and is helping to act as a bio filter for my little pond!

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I was thinking of purchasing some temperate carnivorous plant seeds before the summer is over and planting them so they can overwinter then possibly deal with the little gnats that hover over the waterfall. Yet one more experiment!

Very nice setup for such a small space! :)

Well it has been about 1 week since I introduced the ladybugs into the yard and there offspring are now munching on the aphids! Foot soldiers attack!!

ladybug larvae on a blueberry bush leaf

ladybug larvae on an ornamental quince leaf

Are you saying the Ladybugs have reproduced already?!

Wow you must have ALOT of aphids in your yard

Nice pics Mike. I'm sad to see that 1500 ladies didn't wipe out your aphid problem before the 2nd generation. I was under the impression that a number like that would win the war in 2 or 3 days.

Ladybugs don't remain in the location where they are introduced. At least, not most of them. The exception would be if you were growing in a greenhouse.

Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home......

MicahC -
When you are using biological controls, you will never be rid of the aphids. The predators will keep them at lower levels than they were before, but you still have aphids.

Typically, there is an early population boom of aphids, then the ladybugs wake up and get going, feeding and laying eggs where there are enough aphids to sustain their offspring. Within a couple of weeks you have far fewer aphids and lots of baby ladybugs.

Most people panic and break out the insecticides, the ladybugs can't find enough aphids to feed their babies so they leave.

When I first saw aphids, I waited a few weeks to let them reproduce and grow in numbers before I purchased ladybugs. I figured if a few ladybugs didn't fly away and actually laid some eggs there would be some food leftover for the offspring.

Well lots of ladybugs flew away! I wound up finding tiny ladybug larvae all over this wisteria vine 2 weeks later... The vine is about 40 feet away from the original quince bush that I placed most of them in although I did place a few random 3+ ladybugs in any spot where I saw aphids... I just hope there isn't something in the news about a swarm of ladybugs appearing in NYC ;)...

I read that the USDA first released a certain type of ladybugs en mass in the southeastern part of the US iirc and they have slowly migrated north over the generations... So I blame them for releasing them first!

Anyways, I thought the wisteria vine was an odd place for them to lay eggs since I don't ever recall the wisteria vine having pest problems... Now I see larvae crawling on the wall of the garage... on top of the garbage can... everywhere... sometimes I'll even relocate one to a spot with a lot of aphids on a random rose bush just out of goodwill to give the larvae a nice lunch =P

Here is a pic of a relocated larvae to a rose bush

Here is one that I caught molting! I ran out of battery power when it first started and the process happens fairly quickly (10+ mins) so I missed pics of it splitting out of its old exoskeleton which is interesting! the shell turns black without traces of that orange color.