Aphid Guzzlers

Aphids – Don’t you love them. Nah! They are numerous and can be found on many plants. Don’t despair though, there are a lot of good bugs out there that feed on aphids. I will cover lady bugs in this post.

Most people love ladybugs (I may be wrong :). What’s not to like? The adults have a pleasing shape with beautiful colours – bright red with black spots or black with red spots and other colours. We have different species in the valley. The eggs are bright yellow and laid in groups.

The young ones (larvae) are however a different story. They look like little alligators and are often mistaken for bad bugs. They are black with yellow, in some species the larvae are covered with woolly stuff and do not look anything like the adults. Those alligator looking larvae do not play nice when put together – you will end up with one or a few happy looking ones (you do the math).

The pupae are orange or brown with dark spots and look like strange rounded bumps on leaves or fruit and people usually wonder what they are. The pupal cases are stuck to leaves or fruit after the adults emerge. Unfortunately, a few people have thrown away perfectly good fruit because of the pupal skins and missed out on making their jams. Quite upsetting (:

Ladybugs are good bugs and feed on aphids. Some species of lady bugs feed on fungi. These are very tiny lady bugs – cute little things; you don’t have to agree with me :). You will find these on maples and other plants with powdery mildew disease (white fuzz on the leaves).