Ladybugs, Our Garden Warriors, Released

Our annual order of ladybugs arrived in the mail right on schedule. Unfortunately summer in the Pacific Northwest did not. We finally released our eager eager visitors anyway, though I doubt many have hung around our uninviting backyard. Still these little ladybug warriors were able to coax a bright smile from my sun-starved complexion, even while I cowered in the kitchen to watch them.

Ladies in the Garden

Our ladybugs came in the mail, shipped from Gardens Alive, right on schedule. Some bright warm day long ago my husband had placed the order in anticipation of summer. With that order he extended the best of intentions to practice responsible pest control is our garden this year. Now our ladybugs have arrived but summer hasn’t.

What my husband ordered were natural defenders. What came was a little bag full of bright red spotted garden warriors, officially known as Coccinellidae, or Ladybird Beetles. These warriors came dressed and shaped a bit like my childhood memories of proper middle aged ladies. And, like those middle aged ladies from childhood, their impact should not be underestimated. Ladybird Beetles, commonly known as ladybugs, do a great job of protecting a homey garden from destructive summer pests.

Summer Somewhere

Unfortunately, summer is late in making its appearance in the Pacific Northwest. The ladybugs arrived poised and ready to eat aphids. They would have made a spectacular debut in some dreamy locale where May and June warm freshly exposed limbs as people shed layers of clothing to work in the garden. Here I am still pulling my sweatshirt around myself at midday.

I feel sure that somewhere pests are gathering under the shade of succulent leaves, inviting hungry ladybugs to dine voluptuously. Somewhere these ladybugs I found in the mail would be welcomed for their unique ability to clean things up. No doubt they are greatly needed somewhere, it’s just that that somewhere isn’t here, at least not yet.

Most years we release our ladybugs on a pleasant evening after a warm day working in the garden. We place their small bag in a shady spot under The Wizard (our tall atlas cedar that towers over the backyard). Then we run the sprinklers to provide cool droplets for the beetles to drink from as they wake from their slumber and prepare for battle. We watch as they emerge and disperse into the yard to begin their noble campaign against garden pests. We usually enjoy this ritual in summer clothes with tall glasses of iced tea. Not this year.

Ladybugs on a Noble Campaign

This year the garden plants are hardly growing. The tomatoes impatiently wait. The basil wilts and folds down on itself until it slowly disappears. No pests gather for the ladybugs to dine on. And yet, summer had arrived in our mailbox and we felt it urging us to let it go.

We left the bag of ladybugs in the refrigerator for a while. It was possible they would survive there until the weather warmed. Still inclination and research advised against it. I read that packages of ladybugs sold in the spring are likely to be on the mature side and are best released soon after purchase.

Perhaps it was hope, or maybe resignation, but warned and impatient we finally released them despite the far from optimal conditions. We just couldn’t face waiting any longer. We didn’t want open the bag only to find the pretty ladybugs were all expired without ever having the chance to drink deeply, to even crawl down a leaf or fly away.

Windowbox Warriors

In the end we released them on the windowbox just outside my kitchen window where the warmth from the house might urge them from their bag and where we could watch them without even venturing into the cold damp outdoors ourselves.

Lame? I know. My cooling system was calibrated many years ago to the hot sticky summers of Louisville, Kentucky and the searing dry summers of Dallas, Texas. As a result I am unfit company throughout the cool damp spring months of the Pacific Northwest. Despite my wimpy vantage point the ladybugs rose to the occasion. They were fascinating to watch and posed photogenically as they found their way out of the bag and into the wide world beyond.

I doubt many have hung around our uninviting backyard but the good news is that the pests haven’t gathered there yet either. I like to think the ladybugs found their way to more inviting venues. Even their brief stay was worth the investment. These little warriors were able to coax a bright smile from my sun-starved complexion, even while I cowered in the kitchen to watch them.