I once bothered to buy a cup full of aphid eating ladybugs, and I guess they helped. That was several years ago, and I have since learned to just let nature take care of itself. Lili Singer from the Theodore Payne Foundation once told me that if I have aphids, just wait, and their predators will come. Now I've got aphids galore, and sure enough, the ladybugs arrived. Note, however, that these are not the native 9 spot ladybugs (Coccinella novemnotata), but rather the Asian ladybug (Harmonia axyridis). I'll see what I can do to remedy that situation....
In the meantime, you can learn more about ladybugs here:
www.lostladybug.org.
