It's just money! LOL I forget where you are--I forget WHO you are! LOL Carol? I got some at Sanders in Tulsa 3 years ago, and few stuck around/lived. But I've heard other stories of great success. I just googled them in Tulsa and in OKC. There are places. Now THIS year, I finally have ladybugs and lots of other beneficial predators. And I bought the Japanese beetle bait traps, and am thrilled with the results. FAR less damage than before, and catching loads of them.

Farmgardener, If you can find a supplier with good reviews, then why not buy them and release them? Your assessment that the recent heavy rainfall that dragged on for months and months may have negatively impacted your area's population of beneficial insects sounds logical to me. Why wouldn't they have been washed away in the floods? (After the flooding of 2007, we went about a whole year without seeing a snake. I thought maybe it was just us for whatever reason, but when I started talking to other people who were outdoors a lot---like our electric co-op linemen and such, they said they weren't seeing snakes at all either, and they were just as happy about it as we were. So if snakes can wash away, I bet insects certainly do.) We have not had the heavy rainfall a lot of y'all have had (before today's rain showers, our soil moisture level was down to a measly 0.08, which is pitiful) or it stopped months ago so the side effects have faded. I do remember a point this spring (maybe in March or early April?) when I looked around and felt like all insect populations were down--bad ones and good ones alike--except for stink bugs, which are here in such a huge population that I cannot even begin to describe it accurately---I have said we have 100 times as many stink bugs as usual, and really, that is not an exaggeration.

Our good insects have shown up, but they seemed late to arrive in good numbers. Lady bugs were always here and fairly prolific, but assassin bugs and green lacewings were kind of late, as were some of the others. Oddly, now that they are here, we have 5-10 different kinds of assassin bugs all over the place, and usually we only have 2-4 different kinds. Maybe they've all been drawn here by the never-ending supply of southern green stink bugs and brown stink bugs. I have noticed a whole lot more bee assassin bugs than usual. Surely this is because we have a huge bee population, but since the bee assassin bugs are bad guys (most assassin bugs are good helpers in the garden), I've been spending quite a lot of time killing them.

The insect world is so fascinating....who shows up (or doesn't) and when, where, why and how....

We rarely have aphids, and I think it is mostly because we have so many predator insects that feed on them that I just don't notice them because the beneficial insects gobble them up before they can reproduce much. A couple of weeks ago, I was weeding and looked up and saw oleander aphids on a butterflyweed plant in the garden. I don't think I've ever seen them in the garden before. I got up and walked over to the plant and noticed a lady bug a few inches from the aphids. I returned to my work, figuring the ladybugs would take care of the aphids for me. They did. When I checked the plant a couple of days later, there were no aphids in sight. Who doesn't need lady bugs in their garden?

If a lot of your population washed away, I think releasing them would be a great first step to helping them re-establish in your area.

Dawn

Well I was rushing nature. Went to spray the aphids off the peas tonight and a huge cloud of lacewings rose up!! Even found 1 ladybug larvae. I just need to work on my patience- I have very little to none

Well, join the lack of patience club! You are not the only member. I have found that most of the issues in my garden resolve themselves if I ignore them....and it has taken me a couple of decades to get to the point that I can ignore things knowing that Mother Nature will take care of them for me. Well, I could do it 20 years ago, but I felt guilty. I've now mastered the art of ignoring issues, letting them resolve themselves and not feeling guilty about doing so.