Angela Tucker's List: Convergent Lady Beetle

• Ladybugs are capable of consuming up to 50 to 60 aphids per day but will also  eat a variety of other insects and larvae including scales, mealy bugs, leaf  hoppers, mites, and various types of soft-bodied insects
• Most species of Ladybugs are among our most beneficial insects
• length of the life cycle varies depending upon temperature, humidity, and food  supply. Usually the life cycle from egg to adult requires about three to four  weeks, or up to six weeks during cooler spring months. In the spring,  overwintering adults find food, then lay from fifty to three hundred eggs in her  lifetime (tiny, light -yellow eggs are deposited in clusters of 10 to 50 each)  in aphid colonies. Eggs hatch in three to five days, and larvae feed on aphids  or other insects for two to three weeks, then pupate. Adults emerge in seven to  ten days. There may be five to six generations per year

1 more annotation...

• Adults spend roughly May-January in the mountains, then mate Jan.-Feb., and fly  down to the valleys to lay their eggs and die. The eggs hatch, and the larvae go  on a feeding frenzy eating aphids until undergo complete  metamorphosis into adults and fly back up to the mountains

• best known and most common American lady beetles
• Wheat, sorghum, alfalfa, vegetables, greenhouse crops, orchard crops, and most  crops attacked by aphids
• prey mainly on aphids. Reported prey include cotton, pea, melon, cabbage,  potato, green peach, and corn leaf aphids
• may feed on small insect larvae, insect eggs, mites and, occasionally, nectar,  and honeydew secreted by aphids
• predators of asparagus beetle eggs and larvae and potato psyllids.
• eastern United States

• Tolerance to some pesticides at recommended application rates  is likely. Overwintering adults may be less susceptible than active adults and  larvae.

• Whenever possible, conserve local populations by minimizing the  use of broad-spectrum insecticides, providing refuges for shelter and  overwintering, and following other integrated pest management guidelines as  outlined in the introduction to this guide.

• Commercial insectaries distribute beetles that have been  "harvested" from natural winter aggregation sites. If lady beetles are collected  in this dormant state and transported for field release, even among aphid  infestations, they usually migrate before feeding and laying eggs. This  migratory behavior before feeding is obligatory. Releases of such "harvested"  convergent lady beetles could be a waste of time, money, and beetles.  Insectaries may feed the adult beetles a special diet after they have been  collected to minimize their migratory behavior. Only such preconditioned beetles  should be purchased. Additionally, these harvested beetles may be  parasitized.

7 more annotations...

• Convergent Ladybug Beetles can cause problems for  dogwood trees. They carry a parasite fungus,  which is transferred to the tree when the beetle lands on a leaf