My little helpers finally showed up
If you want to grow an organic garden, you will have to enlist your little friends around the garden to join in with their large help. The birds, bees, ladybugs, lacewings, earthworms, toads… to name a few. As long as you don’t try to kill them with petricide and load your soil with chemicals they will hang around and give you a hand. Providing something for them to eat will help even more. They like us that way. Would you like to hang out in a place where anything you touch may slowly kill you? How about in a place bereft of good food? The answer is “no”, providing that you are not self destructive. The same goes with friends in the yard.
The only pesticide I use comes from soaking Camel cigarette (non-filtered) overnight then mixed with diswashing soap. I usually pick the bugs or caterpillars off by hand. Most of the time my little friends are around ready to offer a hand, actually legs, and happily chow down at the same time.
The Ladybugs showed up a couple of weeks ago despite the uneven weather. They work hard on checking the top and bottom of rose leaves for Aphids. Even while mating, she still keeps working. Her ability is really admirable. I didn’t want to bother them. I need to enlist their babies (larva) as well. If you see something that looks like it just chased Sigourney Weaver around in a movie wearing black with yellow or orange stripes, don’t squash it. You don’t want to kill your ally.
One problem is that they work wherever they want to work. I tried to cup some of them in my hands and move them to a rose bush that had more Aphids, but they usually flew off and either landed on a plant near by or on me. I gave up. Just wonder how people who buy them for the garden make them stay in the garden. We have a lot of them in the garden but they only stay where they feel like. They don’t take to leashes and we couldn’t find an electronic ankle bracelet small enough.
Petals and Wings 
Never have seen a lady beetle larva; or lady bugs in mating(a discloser would’a been nice, that was pretty graphic) however, I like your organic ideas about pesticide use. I had a golden lady bug land on me last summer and was spellbound by it’s beauty! Keep up the great work!
I’m happy to see you use what nature gives to you. What does the camel cigarette/ dish detergent mixture keep away?
The tobacco and detergent mix deters most bugs that eat and suck juice from leaves and buds. It works really well on aphids. I used mine only when the birds and beneficial bugs couldn’t eat them fast enough. Camels was recommended by a lady at the deli in my neighborhood. She said it’s the strongest.
my front yard bushes used to get loads of lady bugs in the spring. there was one year when i showed them to my goddaughter and she was fascinated and continues to ask me about them every single year. sadly, they have disappeared.
love the camel/detergent concoction. any tips on getting rid of ants in potted plants? they’re quite resilient. i recently brought my epiphyllums out and need to bring them back inside when winter comes but i’m worried that the ants from my potted bearded iris might find their way.
Try submerge the whole pot, up to the rim, in water for a couple of hours before you take the plants back in the house. If you see any ants, spray them off with water. I do the same thing with all my tropical plants either I see ants or not. I don’t need any bugs in the house.