Heather had this great idea of buying praying mantises (manti?) to eat all the insects that would harm our vegetable garden and fruit trees. She goes down to Zamzow’s (a local garden and pet store that tout ‘organic’ techniques) and she comes back with 1000 ladybugs! They come in a small mesh-like package that is refrigerated. The cold supposedly suppresses their activity. They seem to have pieces of what I assume is food, but I’m still curious about what their journey must be like from where they are created to the store.

Anyway, the small package is deceiving, looking at it it doesn’t look like there could be 1,000 ladybugs in there. The package is only maybe 6″ by 6″. But when you look close and start to count any particular area, it seems a bit more realistic. So we throw them in the fridge until dark because that’s when you release them. When it’s dark they won’t fly away. You release them on the trunk of the tree or the base of the bush and then their natural instinct takes over and they start marching up.