Ladybugs

This week in SustAg, Mr. Stewart has introduced us to companions and their role in our local farm. We have learned about many different companions that we can find on our farm, some being beneficial to the farm and others being detrimental. We have learned about the helpful pollination of bees, the harm of invasive weeds such as bermuda grass, and the beneficial decomposition of worms. One of the most helpful companions that we have learned about is the ladybug. Plant-eating aphids can be very harmful to a farm, but the presence of their ladybug predators keeps the number of aphids in check. Ladybugs eat 50-60 aphids per day, and without them, aphids would be able to eat and kill huge numbers of plants on a farm. As you can see in the image below, I found a ladybug on one of my bean plants in my OneBed eating aphids. In our OneBed one of the bean plants has completely died and shriveled up as it was eaten by aphids before we noticed. Once we recognized this issue we were able to smush the majority of the aphids on our bean plants and the rest should be eaten by ladybugs. Although the aphids are pests and are harmful to our plants, their presence along with the presence of the ladybugs and many other companions on our farm indicated that we are maintaining a balanced ecosystem with ample biodiversity. —Dean