Today while on my morning aphid patrol, with my spray bottle of water with a bit of dish soap, I noticed clusters of orange insect eggs in three or four places under the leaves of the cantaloupe and watermelon plants. I wondered what insect was now attacking the plants and sprayed the egg clusters. Toward the end of my patrol I noticed a ladybug on a watermelon plant and thought that perhaps the egg clusters were those of a ladybug.
A bit later I did a Yahoo search for ladybug eggs and amongst the search responses was the picture to the left. I believe the egg clusters on the melons were indeed those of a ladybug.
This afternoon I again inspected the melon plants and found a ladybug setting underneath a cantaloupe leaf. Hopefully it’s a female and she will replace the eggs I sprayed this morning.
UPDATE 1-17-06: During my morning patrol I noticed a cluster of eggs on a cantaloupe leaf which I will carefully avoid harming and observe to see how long it takes for the eggs to hatch. I learned from my previous research that ladybug larva are pretty menacing looking and that they feed on their egg sacks, as well as their unhatched sisters and brothers.
5 Comments
January 16, 2006 at 7:57 pm
nice
January 16, 2006 at 11:34 pm
The lady bugs will take care of the aphids. Now you can take a break from patrolling and drink some more wine.
January 17, 2006 at 6:34 am
Even with my twice per day aphid patrol I have still been able to find the time to drink a bit of wine. The aphids are under control to the point where during my morning patrol I find them only on a couple of leaves. The plants are doing well and little melons are popping out all over.
September 12, 2007 at 3:58 pm
WHERE ARE PICS OF LADYBUG EGGS THAT I CAN LOOK FOR?
July 17, 2008 at 11:43 pm
You can purchase several thousand ladybugs on the internet even ebay for just a few bucks. Which is much cheaper than they sell at most nursries. good luck with your gardening. :)