Aquaponics - Lady birds

That's not a real bird.

Some birds are more birdlike than others. Ladybirds  (lady bugs in North America) are hardly bird like at all. And they don't even rate on the lady-like scale (whatever that means)

The most birdlike aspect of ladybirds is that they can fly, and lay eggs.

The least birdlike activities include going through 4 different stages as they mature and mutate, being a savage cannibalistic predator in all but the egg stage, and generally being spotty, and featuring in a lot of children's books.

Whoever does their PR is a genius.

Their colour scheme for one is a delight to child and adult alike, but must strike fear into the hearts (or heart-like glubbs*) of aphids everywhere.

They should really be called "lady beetles" or ladybird beetles" as they are not actually bugs (or birds) , but are or course beetles.

They look like this in one of their stages.

And this is how that same ladybird larva looks in a soup bowl.

And this more familiar look in their adult version.

I'm told that they eat a stack of aphids (up to 300 in that first stage) but I'm often lied to.

But I actually think that's correct.












*yeah, that's a word now.


Glubbs (ˈfɜːfɪ) 
Heart like organ found within colourful, semi-spherical polka dotted fictitious insects, that whilst seemingly anti-aerodynamic in shape, can somehow fly (see magic)

Aquaponics - Hatched bugs

A while ago I found a few million eggs deposited under my baby spinach. I wasn't sure if they were going to be my friends, or be pests.

On the up side, they hatched and moved away.

On the down side, they moved to my lettuce.

I think they are aphids.

They look every bit as exciting and sociable as sea monkeys.

I don't think they are going to be my friend.

There are a few ways to get rid of aphids. One way is to wait until I sort out my spider based sticky trap, and the other is to buy a few sticky traps.

After a few attempts at spider relocation, I'm unconvinced that my current method will ever pay dividends, so I guess it's off to the garden section of my nearest hardware.

I've also heard you can use a hand held vacuum cleaner to vacuum them out of your garden. I knew it would eventually be useful. Lucky for me I've been keeping an unused dust-buster handy for the last fifteen years, just in case a mass invasion of tiny bugs should threaten to over run us, and install themselves as our insectoid overlords.

When wearing my foil helmet, and with my dust-buster in its holster, people used to point and laugh derisively at me.

Well, not any more.

Not any more.