Grow native or adapted plants, use organic fertilizer and avoid products that kill life in the garden. If your garden needs help while converting to the organic approaches, release beneficials to fight infestations of bad bugs. But many bugs that most commonly try to kill are also beneficial. They include assassin bugs, predatory stink bugs, wasps, bees, spiders and predatory mites. If aphids arrive in the spring to suck the juice from new growth on plants, release ladybugs directly onto the plants.
Ladybugs emerge from their containers thirsty as well as hungry.
After lightly watering infested plants at dusk, release ladybugs directly onto the affected leaves. If you can't release them on a cool evening, then refrigerate the container overnight and release them on dew-moist plants in the early morning. Beneficials will linger in the garden if moisture and food are provided in a chemical-free environment. Buy ladybugs at local nurseries in small boxes or net bags that contain from 1,500 bugs in a pint up to 70,000 bugs in a gallon for large-scale agriculture. From early spring through September, release ladybugs as needed on aphid-infested plants.