Aphids on Lime Tree -> Ladybeetle 🪲

[nelsonic]

For the first year we had the lime tree it gave us several fruits. 🍋‍🟩
But these last two years the tree has been covered in aphids and thus hasn’t had any fruit! 😢

the bio way of addressing this is with natural preditor:

https://www.olx.pt/d/anuncio/joaninhas-7-pintas-coccinella-septmpunctata-anti-pragas-eficaz-IDHNLZv.html

thinking of ordering a set of these lady beetles to take care of the aphids on the lime tree which, sadly, hasn’t been addressed. 💭

[nelsonic]

And, yes, we can just leave the lime tree to it’s own devices and hope that it doesn’t die …
For €20 (+ €9 postage) we can buy a lot of limes…! 🍋‍🟩 💰
But I’m keen to address the root cause of the problem before we plant any more trees for the secret garden. 🌱🪴🌳
Also, the Aphids killed our tomatoes last summer 🍅 💀 which was super lame! 😒

I’m thinking of buying these in March and installing the “bug hotel” on the wall behind the Lime tree.
That way the Ladybeetles will be as close to their breakfast buffet as possible and can systematically address the problem. 🥷

[nelsonic]

Coccinella Septempunctata;
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coccinella_septempunctata

[iteles]

I have personally cleaned the lime tree of aphids 4 times and 'had' the tree cleared a further 3, but they do keep returning.

Very happy to try this solution in the Spring once they are out of their hibernation phase.

[nelsonic]

No human manually cleaning the branches/leaves will have the effectiveness of a blood-sucking predator.

So let’s get this done in March. 👌