Ladybugs are Good for Your Garden http://gardening-ahmad.blogspot.com/

Adult ladybugs, or ladybird beetles, are typically a brick red or orange with black markings. But some are black, often with red markings. Their larvae look like miniature alligators, and they live up to their appearance by being voracious predators of many garden pests. That's why ladybugs are among the most visible and best known beneficial predatory insects.

There are more than 450 species of ladybugs in North America. Some are native and some have been introduced from other countries. Most North American species are beneficial, with both adults and larvae feeding primarily on aphids. They also feed on mites, small insects, and insect eggs. (There are two pest species in the group: the Mexican bean beetle and the squash beetle. Both adults and larvae of those species feed on plants.)

Most ladybugs found in gardens are aphid predators. Some species prefer only certain aphids while others will seek out and dine on most any kind of aphid. Some prefer mite or scale species. If aphids are scarce, they'll feed on the eggs of moths, beetles, mites, thrips, and other small insects, as well as pollen and nectar. Not as delicate and refined as they seem, they'll also feed on their own young.

Because of their ability to survive on other prey when aphids are in short supply, ladybugs are particularly valuable natural enemies of pests.

Ladybugs overwinter as adults, often in aggregations along hedgerows, beneath leaf litter, under rocks and bark, and in other protected places, including buildings. In spring, the adults disperse in search of prey and suitable egg laying sites. This dispersal trait, especially strong in migratory species such as the commercially available convergent lady beetle, affects the reliability of released adult beetles.

To encourage these beneficial insects into your garden, supply them with food and moisture. Small and shallow-faced flowers provide adults easy access to nectar and pollen: Plant alyssum, herbs from the dill and mint families, and flowers from the daisy family.



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Controlling Rodents Naturally http://gardening-ahmad.blogspot.com/

There are hills and canyons in and around Los Angeles where gophers are such an enormous problem that gardening is virtually impossible. In parts of Santa Clarita and the Antelope Valley, the only way to plant is to sink a fine mesh fence, to a two foot depth, around your garden. If you want to plant a small tree, a similar fence around the drip line or canopy diameter is needed to prevent gophers from chewing the tree's roots and, in some cases, from gnawing through its trunk.None of the conventional gopher control techniques have been embraced by the general public. Trapping definitely works, but it is accompanied by the never pleasant task of extracting the dead animal from the trap's skewers that pierce it on both sides. You might choose to dispose of the trap (a $6 item) along with the dead gopher, but this will only mean purchasing another trap later on when other gophers reclaim the area, which they always do. Smoldering sulfur sticks, inserted into gopher burrows, are sometimes effective at asphyxiating gophers; with this method, you don't have to worry about retrieving the dead animal. However, unlike with traps, there is no certainty that the sulfur sticks have worked. Oats laced with strychnine are the most popular poison bait, except that lots of people don't like handling noxious chemicals and, again, you can never be sure if the gopher got away.

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