Ladybugs are gardeners’ best friends since they are one of the best natural pest controls. Attracting them to your beloved garden is definitely a good idea.
Of course, the easiest way to attract them is to plant their favorite plants like dandelion, chives, angelica, cilantro, cosmos, and geranium. They love to feed on those plants so they will see your garden as an abundant food source.
In addition to planting those plants, you can follow some steps that will even draw the ladybugs’ attention. The steps involve providing ‘facilities’ for the ladybugs which turn your garden into their cozy habitat.
Just keep scrolling to check out our quick tutorial on how to attract ladybugs to your very own garden below!
How to Attract Ladybugs
Place some water bowls
Providing some water sources is the easiest way to attract ladybugs to come to your garden, so it should be the very first step that you can do. They will visit your garden for a drink once it has some fresh water sources around.
You can follow the steps below:
- Prepare some shallow bowls which are durable enough to be placed outdoor.
- Fill the bowl with some gravel (artificial or real, doesn’t matter) to prevent the ladybugs from drowning once they drink from the bowls.
- Fill the bowls with some fresh water but don’t make them too deep.
- In addition to those bowls, you can also leave some damp paper towels that will attract them more.
Create shelters for them
Ladybirds will feel comfortable staying around your garden when they feel safe, so turning the outdoor space into their shelter is a great idea. You can simply plant oregano, thyme, or other low groundcover plants which ladybugs love to shelter around.
If you are handy enough, you can create a DIY ladybugs shelter by following these steps:
- Purchase a small wooden box which comes with some holes.
- Put luring food like sugar water or raisins inside which will attract the ladybugs.
- As a bonus, you will also find other insects to shelter like green lacewings and bees.
(Read also: How to Get Rid of Home Lizards by Using Easy Home Supplies)
Don’t use pesticides
You might be tempted to use pesticides to kill bad bugs in our garden, but it will also kill the ladybugs. The smell that the pesticides create makes your garden less appealing to them.
Attract aphids for their snack
As weird as it sounds, you might want to attract aphids to come to your garden since they are actually ladybugs’ favorite food. However, of course, you don’t want aphids to invade the beloved plants in your garden.
To avoid this issue, you can add some decoy plants to provide a food source for the aphids like marigolds, radishes, and nasturtiums. Those ladybugs will love to snack on those aphids.
Purchase some ladybugs
Instead of waiting for the ladybugs to come around, you can purchase some ladybugs and release them in your garden. Once you have done following the steps above and turned your garden into a ladybugs’ cozy shelter, you release ladybugs to the right place.
(Image credit: depositphotos.com)
