The ladybug is a great aphid lover! As such, she is very often used in biological control by organic farmers for example. But did you know that you too can start breeding ladybugs? It is an effective way to keep a natural garden, and an interesting experience to live with your children!

Where to find ladybug eggs?

Many websites offer ladybug breeding ‘kits’: they usually contain eggs, a box to serve as a ladybug speaker, food and instructions, for a sum ranging from 20 to 35 euros.

Depending on the case, you will be asked or not to choose the species of ladybugs. Some kits for children contain two species so that they can observe and compare their similarities and differences.

How to start a ladybug farm?

After receiving your kit, you must quickly take out the eggs and set up your farm. On our side we received it on a Friday, it contained:

  • A hundred eggs of two-spotted ladybugs,
    Adalia bipunctata
  • a transparent plastic box
  • an accordion folded paper
  • a bag of food (butterfly eggs to place in the freezer)
  • a small wooden measuring spoon
  • an explanatory booklet.

Ladybugs should be placed in a sunny place but not in direct light, ideally between 20 and 25 ° C.

How to recognize ladybug eggs?

Ladybug eggs are yellow, oval in shape, and especially tiny! They measure between 1 and 2mm. A ladybug usually lays between 10 and 20 eggs grouped together. In nature, it lays eggs on or under leaves, on a plant carrying aphids, so that the larvae have enough to feed on after hatching.

Ladybug eggs

How to take care of ladybugs?

After about 5 days, the eggs turn black: hatching is imminent! This is the time to give a dose of food because the larvae will be born hungry.

If you have acquired a pack, you will probably have been provided with butterfly eggs. It is also possible to collect aphids from a plant in your garden!

In our pack, the instructions recommended feeding the larvae every other day.

We also added a water-soaked cotton pad in the ladybug space. Do not pour water directly as they may drown.

After a few days, the eggs turned black: hatching was imminent!

The life of a ladybug

The ladybug goes through 4 successive larval stages, as the larva grows. Each lasts about 4 or 5 days and ends with molting, the larva changes skin. At the end of the 4th stage, it is pupation: the larva folds in on itself and immobilizes to form a kind of cocoon (it is the same principle as the caterpillar that forms a chrysalis during its metamorphosis into a butterfly). The metamorphosis of the ladybug lasts about a week.

larva and moult of ladybug

By the second day, the larvae have already grown well, and some have made their first molt.

The larvae of
adalia bipunctata
are grey. They look nothing like ladybugs!

Ladybug larva
2-point ladybug nymph

Formation of the nymph. The larva folds in on itself and a kind of shell will form.

Larva and nymph of a ladybug of another species

After about a week, the first ladybug is born: it is emergence. It will take its final color in the days that follow.

 

Your ladybugs are born!

 

 

The young adult ladybug is called ‘imago’. The species we breed, the ladybug has two points, is born yellow and unmarked. After a few hours it takes its original color. The two-spotted ladybug, Adalia bipunctata, is either red with two black dots on the back, or black with red spots. Spots appear after a few days.

 

 

 

When to release my ladybugs into the wild?

Several possibilities are available to you. You can release your ladybugs on an overgrown aphid plant, or decide to keep them and continue feeding. There is a good chance that they will lay eggs fairly quickly if the right conditions are met: presence of food, sufficient brightness, temperature between 20 and 25 ° C. That’s what happened for us, after about a week the ladybugs started mating and laying eggs!

Breeding ladybugs

You can then collect the eggs with a brush and place them on a plant.

 

Another possibility is to release your ladybugs when they are in the larval state, as the larvae also eat a lot of aphids! In the 4th larval stage, some ladybug larvae can gobble up to 150 aphids per day! Note that some species are more voracious than others.

 

And that’s it, you know everything about raising ladybugs at home! So, ready to get started?

 

And for all those who want to preserve a natural garden without going through biological control and ladybug breeding, other methods exist.

For example, you can plant species whose smell repels aphids, such as carnations, basil, lavender…

Or on the contrary species that attract them, such as nasturtiums and cabbages. The aphids will then move towards these plants.