See this beautiful plant? The planter and plant were Chad's gift to me for my birthday. The planter - like a new window - is a small thing that goes a long way to making the house more homey. I guess the aphids in the neighborhood thought it looked homey, too. Because, with lightening-quick speed, the plant was filled with hundreds of aphids. I read that once you can see them, you've lost the war. Wait for some predators to move in. So I did, but the predators weren't coming. So this weekend Chad and I bought a ten dollar bag of 1500(!) lady bugs and released them into the yard at dusk, after watering, as directed on the lady bug package. We spent the rest of the lighted evening watching the ladies wage war on the aphids. I guess they were hungry after being in a mesh package at the garden store. Of course, when we woke up, there were about three lady bugs left on the plant. But there were also a bunch of aphid carcases.
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