Has anybody bought ladybirds, if so where from?

[Kdyjrd44]

Aphid infestation on apple tree. High be pollinating garden with no pesticides but I need more ladybirds and can’t wait to lure more.

Is it ok to buy ladybirds and any recommended places?

I havent bought yet but this is where I am planning on buying from.

https://www.greengardener.co.uk/shop/ladybirds-and-lacewings/l.p.

I was just looking at them( and trying to convince myself I don’t need a ladybird barn too)!

I have bought worms from (yes really!) Wiggly Wigglers. I was amazed we can get all this helpful garden livestock so easily now 😀

Thanks for that. I’m now trying to convince myself that I don’t need to buy worms!

I bought 25 adult ladybirds from the Green Gardener this year. They all survived the post and I appreciated the information sheet that came with them.

I bought a ladybird house from Amazon as it was a bit cheaper there, as I'm hoping to encourage them to stay. They made a big difference to my aphid-infested rose.

I've since learned that juvenile ladybirds eat twice as many aphids, so if I ever need to order again, I'm going for those next time.

I buy mentors from Green Gardener and the information and service is great

25! We had an infestation of thousands in the porch.

I was busy thinking that they would munch on the aphids when the builder pointed out they were eating the timber.

Should have rounded them up and sold them to Mumsnetters.

I had no idea you could buy ladybirds 😮

Now that would be a niche side hustle

I too have an aphid infestation, and the other day I came across a wall full of ladybird larvae... I pocketed about 6 of them into my DS's empty lunchbox, brought them home and carefully positioned them on the affected rose bush. Next day no aphids!
If they're badly affecting your tree I'd say it's worth buying some - get the larvae not the fully grown ones (they're likely to fly away).

I got a 'ladybird family' from green gardener, put the larvae on my plum tree which always suffers dreadfully with the aphids and spread the adults around the garden on my roses. The adults were all alive when delivered and very efficient at dealing with the aphids on the roses. Apparently they are fairly territorial so stay in the same place and since we are surrounded by mature gardens I'm sure there's lots to keep them in the general area. And two spot ladybirds are declining in the UK so I'm quite happy to buy them every year if need be and increase the local population.

I've bought some ladybird attractant food - just waiting for the rainy days to finish and then I'm going to paste it near to aphid hot spots around the garden. Definitely more aphids than usual this year.

I've also been growing some tagetes (tenuifolia 'golden gem') and plan to plant them next to my rose which was covered in aphids last year - apparently it repels them but we'll see.