Purchasing the adults is basically a waste of your precious dollars.

Purchasing the larvae might be a better choice because they couldn't fly away. One would hope that they would eat enough to become adults, then lay eggs in your garden.

But if they languish rather than eat, once again dollars are wasted.

Unless you have been dousing everything with pesticides, you already have ladybugs at your place. They'll stick around as long as you have some "food" -- a few of the pests they snack on -- available.

In my opinion purchasing adult ladybugs is not always a waste of money. Yes, many or most of them will fly off and/or expire before doing any good, but some always stay and feed for a couple of weeks. They are relatively inexpensive compared to many other controls, including other beneficials, and I often recommend using them, instead of a spray, on a biweekly basis for part of the growing season (if you have a high-value crop that warrants this), as they can clean up aphids quite well if you put out enough.

I do agree beneficial habitat that attracts wild ladybugs (most or all commercial ladybugs are collected as adults in California, although they are a native species that occurs throughout the US) is far better, and if they were available, eggs or larvae would be better than collected adults - but as far as I know, no one sells eggs or larvae.

Also, I would only recommend purchasing ladybugs for aphid control. Recommended release rate is 1 quart (about 15,000 ladybugs) per 10,000 sq ft.

Thanks for the replies. If I buy them now is it likely that they will reproduce, or is it too hot for them and will they die of because of the heat? Also, is it possible for them to survive the winter in California? I've seen something called a ladybug cabin that they can supposedly survive in. Has anyobody gone so far as to try to create a heated greenhouse to keep them alive and reproducing? Please share any small scale ladybug breeding habitat ideas that you have.

I was hiking in Ice House Canyon near Mount Baldy two days ago and came across an area covered with tens of thousands of ladybugs, so many they covered bushs and boulders and dead tree trunks and live tree trunks where you couldn't see the surface underneath, and we had to walk through clouds of them and got covered with them ourselves. If I would have had a quart jar and a small wisk brush I probably could have filled it up in a few minutes and took them home with me. I saw the same thing the last time I hiked there, but not as many. I wonder what causes so many ladybugs to congregate in this particular place?

I've gone as far as actually ordering the ladybugs and one mantid egg. They haven't arrived yet, anticipating this weekend. Don't quite know what to expect, I hope they won't all fly away. I also ordered ladybug food that you mix and place on objects or leaves just in case there aren't enough aphids for them. Will wait and see what happens!

I bought ladybugs a few years ago. I think that some of the adults stuck around. I don't know if this acted as a seed population, or if what I've planted has helped them out but this year I've seen lots in the yard. I saw at least 6 pairs doing the mattress mambo on one of my wild plums at one time. Love was in the air, I guess.

Bought mantis aggs for fun- they won't succeed and eat enough to make a big impact, but they are too neat. I did see a juvenile one living in a squash flower later that summer- it was very cool, and very aggressive. They hatch in really hot weather- maybe they'd do a lot better in CA than in NH.

I would agree that buying ladybugs is likely a waste of time *often*, dunno I would say it always is.

Last year there were next to no ladybugs around for who knows what reason. A buddy 30 miles away noticed the same thing. In such a case *maybe* buying some would help. Don't really know.

We will see what this year brings. In my yard planting morning glories seems to bring them in in droves. Last year I didn't plant any. This year I planted a bunch. Who knows?

Californian stumbled on the very reason why lady bugs are a waste of money. They over winter in cool areas in the local mountains here in California. They fly up there in fall where they gather in clusters for warmth and go into diapause until day length and temperatures tell them it's time to head down the hill. People go to the mountains and collect the adults in these clusters and sell them. Here's the problem. When they wake up, they have just about enough fat reserve to get them somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 miles from where they over-wintered. They aren't hungry. The bugs use that fat reserve to fly down towards the coast and when they get hungry, they land and feed and breed. When you buy them they haven't had a chance to burn off that winter reserve. You release them, they fly 100 miles away and then land to eat. That is why the box says to release them at night. It sounds like a joke but it really is because they don't want you to see them flying away. So, it's probably best not to buy ladybugs. Have your buddy who lives a hundred miles from you buy the bugs and hope that you get lucky.