Insects will ONLY ship Tuesdays and Wednesdays of the following week after your order has been placed. No returns are accepted due to the nature of the insects. Restrictions apply for some states, depending on weather conditions (mostly for hot weather). For more information please contact us.
GREEN LACEWINGS (Chrysopa Carnea) The natural enemy of many species of pest insects and mites, receive eggs that soon hatch into larvae. The tiny larvae are known as "Aphid Lions" because of their voracious appetites (devouring as many as 10000 aphids per day).
They remain as larvae for up to 21 days, just crawling around looking for food. Aphid Lions also make hearty meals of mealybugs, cottony cushion scale, spider mites, caterpillars, white-fly larvae and a wide variety of moth eggs and just about any other soft bodied pests. The adult green lacewing, feeding only on pollin, will lay its eggs, and the life cycle will repeat.
The
Green Lacewings are predators of many species of pest insects and mites. These attractive pale insects are an effective natural enemy of aphids, mites, white- Flies, mealybugs, leaf-hoppers, trips, all types of moth and butterfly eggs, and caterpillars.
DIRECTIONS: The Lacewings are shipped to you as eggs, and will probably be hatching or very close to hatching by the time you receive them. We mix the lacewing eggs with wood shavings and moth eggs for food.
The shavings serve functions: first, when the lacewings hatch they are very hungry! (In fact they are so hungry they often resort to cannibalism if there is no other food source available). The shavings provide separation so they are not as apt to eat each other. The second reason is that they are so small, it is easier to distribute them if they are in a carrier to give you more volume to work with. A thimble would hold about 10,000 lacewing eggs! Sprinkle them around your plants.
If you are putting them in trees, you can place small amounts in paper drinking cups and stable them to the leaves. The lacewing will crawl out and up into the tree or plant. The larvae will feed for about 3 weeks, then they will roll up into a little white pupae and emerge as an adult in about 1 week ready to lay eggs! When looking for the newly hatched lacewing larvae, remember that they are quite small about the size of the pale green or gray egg from which they came, so you may have difficulty seeing them.
RECOMMENDATIONS
WATER WASHING: In the event your plants are already infested with aphids or other harmful insects. It is advisable to "water wash" your plants first. This involves spraying the plants with water , thus knocking the insects to the ground. The lacewing larvae will establish themselves more quickly and prevent further re-infestations.
Beneficial insects come in two varieties, PREDATORS, or PARASITES.
Predators, attach the pest directly, usually by piercing the insect and sucking out the fluids. This is how they can destroy so many in a day. Parasites, do their job by laying their eggs in the pest eggs. The parasite’s eggs hatch first and feed on the pest egg which kills it.
