A good blast of water from a squirt bottle will help keep them under control, but usually doesnÂt completely eliminate them. I use a soap insecticide, let it sit for a minute or two, then rinse the soap off the leaves with a few squirts from the water bottle. If you can do this daily, you can get rid of them completely.

Ladybugs. Best investment I ever made. Solved a horrible aphid infestation indoors.

Chris

I second what Chris said. Makes life very easy when you have ladybugs. I ordered mine and they came in two days. I am in Canada.

safer soap is very effective against aphids, that's the only pest stuff I have to use in the garden (other than snail bait which doesn't go on the plants).

I have used ladybugs indoors for years with good results. Soaps and other sprays only work temporarily for me. Once my plants are outside I never have an aphid problem as their natural enemies take care of them. I also don't use poisons ( except slug bait) and plant flowers and herbs so I have lots of other beificial insects.

john

For everyone using ladybugs indoors, where did you purchase from? I have found one place through amazon, and another through some other website. Both were around $17 shipped. Obviously, I don't need 1500 for my indoor use.

I am also worried about releasing the wrong type of ladybugs. From what I have heard, orange ones are the Asian type, who also eat the native ladybugs.

Any help is appreciated.

You're right, you don't need that many, but that is probably the minimum order, and in my opinion worth every penny.

I've been very happy with A1 Unique. Price was probably higher than what you mentioned, but fast shipping, and they arrive in very good shape.

Where do all the ladybugs go when you release them indoors? Do they stay by plants or scatter all over if you don't have alot of plants or aphids. I like nature and all but I'm not sure I want ladybugs flying in the kitchen and crawling in the bed.

Help! I just bought some ladybugs and put a few in my Aerogarden with a plastic bag to keep them in. The ladybugs ate well, but when I removed the plastic bag I found that my newest, most tender tomatoes had been munched down to the "soil". Do ladybugs eat seedlings? The older peppers were fine, but my tomatoes are goners. There were still a few aphids left, and the ladybugs were only there a couple of days, so I don't think they were starving.

Has anyone heard of this happening?

It usually takes the ladybugs a few weeks to completely get rid of the aphids. I imagine the aphids ate your seedlings.

I put 3 ladybugs in with about 15 seedlings. The peppers were about 2 weeks farther along than the tomatoes. In just a couple of days the aphids were pretty much gone. Then the next time I looked the tomato plants were gone too.