Ladybug, Organic Garden, Persistence

 

A ladybug can eat 50 aphids per day. They are best friends for an organic garden. Our roses used to suffer from aphids every spring.  If we did not spray pesticides, a whole plant would be gone within days because aphids propagate at a seemingly exponential speed.

After we decided to have a 100% organic garden, the first test we faced was when aphids came back to the roses. I went to Home Depot and came back with a package of 1,500 live ladybugs. My father-in-law, a life-time farmer from China, curiously looked at the bugs and shook his head. "They will be all gone within hours," said he, "it is not going to work!"

Strictly following the instruction, I released the ladybugs to the rose bushes, like a well-trained professional biologist. Then I patiently waited for the results. Nothing magical happened when I checked the roses on the second day. There were only a couple of ladybugs left. I cannot tell if the aphids were under control. After another two days of weighting between pesticides and the pursuit of an organic garden, I bought another 1,500 ladybugs. "If it does not work, I will give up," I told myself, "everyone loves the roses, so we must save them."

It took days to see the difference. The roses also worked hard to grow their leaves and buds faster than aphids ate them. Eventually, all the aphids were gone. We enjoyed fragrant organic rose tea for a whole spring and summer, feeling grateful to the 3,000 ladybugs.

The next spring, on the first day when aphids appeared on rosebuds, I immediately went to buy ladybugs. This time, 1,500 ladybugs fixed all the aphids.

In the third year, when aphids appeared again, I was surprised to see a ladybug nearby. Maybe it came from the neighborhood? Without taking any further action, I checked the roses every day. There were fewer and fewer aphids left until they were eventually gone.

We have not bought any ladybugs since then. Aphids came to visit roses every spring during the past six years, and ladybugs always got them. The 4,500 ladybugs that I released disappeared in the neighborhood. In our whole community, they have been propagating and protecting every garden.

It is more than a good memory of organic gardening as this experience inspired me to think about the impact of every action in our daily life. Do the right thing and do your best. You will not regret it.

(Photo Credit: "Rose Bud" by Sylvia Wang)