By Christie Boucher

Lady Bugs are the good kind of bug you want in your garden. They are a gardener’s friend that provides organic and natural pest control free of charge.

If you are already spotting them on your plants, then your garden is more pest free than most. A ladybug is not only lovely to spot moving along on your blooms but super helpful in eating aphids. A ton of them. They eat other bag bugs too, but aphids are the pests most gardeners know about and want to get rid of.

Although, you can buy ladybugs, you don’t need to because if you provide the right conditions for the ladybugs they will show up on their own. The thing is if you just buy the ladybugs, they won’t stay without food, shelter and water. In the end you are better off planting a few plants that draw them to your garden. By providing what a ladybug what they need they will come and hang out in your garden helping you keep pests away.

This past fall I planted a patch of Bachelor Buttons and before spring came, I noticed a wave of ladybugs hanging out. Now as spring is here, I notice the ladybugs still in the patch of Buttons but also substantially more ladybugs in the vegetable patch, and on my climbing roses. Ladybugs are abundant!!. If you too want them to come, consider adding a few of these plants to your garden space. The goal is to get the ladybugs into the garden before you have trouble. So be thinking of how you can fall plant and direct seed when mentioned. Or get these out in the garden as soon as the temps are warm enough.

  Bachelor Buttons – fall plant from seed for best results with this one

  Coneflowers – fun to start from seed

  Nasturtium

  Chives

  Tomato                                                                                                                                                          

The added benefit of attracting the ladybug to the garden is you’ll also be setting the stage for other helpful insects like bees, wasps, and butterflies to show up and work in your garden. You’ll attract more birds to your yard space, and they eat bad bugs too. These are the garden helpers we all need and want. A word of caution is a ladybug larvae look like bad bugs so make sure to look up ladybug larvae pictures before you start squishing bugs you are not sure of.

Putting in a shallow birdbath with a few stacked pebbles in the water for the insects provides the water they need. The pebbles are so the insects, such as ladybugs, have a landing spot.

Christie Boucher, an intern in the Master Gardener 2022 Master Gardener Class. For more information on becoming a master gardener, visit www. capcitymga.org or email capcitymga@gmail.com.