Anyone who wants to settle ladybugs in their garden is quite right. The cute dot beetles are not only popular lucky charms, but also effective pest killers. With a few simple precautions, you can make your garden ladybug-friendly.
Ladybugs look pretty and are useful against pests
Feel-good atmosphere for ladybugs
In order for ladybugs to feel welcome and settle down permanently, the following criteria must be met:
- The greatest possible diversity of plant species
- Diverse food sources
- Shelters for the winter
Garden rich in plants and species
For many beneficial insects, it is beneficial to keep the garden as natural and species-rich as possible. Because more plant diversity also promotes more animal and thus more food diversity. Less use of chemical substances makes the garden a more pleasant place for all garden helpers because it is less dangerous.
What ladybugs are certainly not attracted to are meticulously trimmed, homogeneous lawns and box trees that have been trimmed to perfection. Beds with many different flowers and herbs and a lawn in which dandelions, daisies, and clover are allowed to bloom offer ladybugs valuable sources of nutritional supplements. Because although they feed mainly on insects, preferably aphids, they also like to fall back on pollen in times of need. Flowering plants that are worth planting for ladybugs and also for your own needs for beauty and kitchen enrichment include:
- fennel
- chives
- dill
- mint
- chamomile
- marigolds
- poppy
- dandelion
- clover
Of course, you have to be careful to let these plants all flower in order for them to develop their ladybug-friendly effects.
Of course, a natural, unsprayed garden also promotes aphids, which in turn attract ladybugs, but are undesirable themselves. To get out of this dilemma, one can reserve a corner in the garden where aphids are completely free to roam, thus serving as a tempting buffet for ladybugs.
create winter quarters
In the case of ladybirds, it is not the pupated larvae that overwinter, but the adults. For the cold season, which they survive in a hibernation, they need protected hiding places. With a little sensitivity, you can provide suitable winter quarters and keep the ladybugs in your garden beyond the season. The little animals like to crawl into piles of autumn leaves, in unplastered natural stone walls or in all sorts of cracks in the house. You can also offer the ladybirds an insect hotel (€11.33) as winter quarters.