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How to Attract Ladybugs to Your Garden

Ladybugs aren’t just cute, colorful bugs—they’re tiny superheroes for your garden. These natural predators help control pest populations, especially aphids, and can drastically reduce the need for chemical pesticides. By creating a welcoming environment for ladybugs, you can boost your garden’s overall health and enjoy watching these beneficial insects go to work. Ladybugs work hand in hand with companion planting and add an extra layer of protection and beauty to your garden. So if you are curious about how to attract ladybugs to your garden just keep reading!

Why Attract Ladybugs?

Ladybugs are voracious eaters of aphids, mites, and other plant-damaging insects. A single ladybug can eat up to 50 aphids a day! By encouraging ladybugs to call your garden home, you’re adding a natural, sustainable form of pest control that protects your vegetables, fruits, and flowers alike.

Best Plants That Benefit From Ladybugs

• Tomatoes
• Peppers
• Broccoli
• Lettuce
• Cucumbers
• Roses
• Milkweed – this is also a great flower to attract monarch butterflies!

Most of these plants are also very beginner friendly and can be found on by article here!

10 Best Flowers That Attract Ladybugs

• Dill (Annual): Grows best in full sun; blooms in mid-to-late summer. Great for both food and shelter. Dill is an easy herb to grow too!
• Fennel (Perennial in warmer zones): Full sun; blooms from mid-summer to early fall. Excellent nectar source.
• Cilantro (Annual): Allow to flower; full sun to part shade; blooms late spring to early summer.
• Marigolds (Annual): Full sun; blooms summer through fall; deters pests while attracting ladybugs.
• Yarrow (Perennial): Full sun; blooms from late spring to early fall; drought-tolerant and attracts a wide range of beneficial insects.
• Cosmos (Annual): Full sun; blooms midsummer through frost; provides height and shelter. Often Cosmos will reseed themselves too.
• Sweet Alyssum (Annual): Full sun to partial shade; blooms spring through fall; fragrant and low-growing.
• Calendula (Annual): Full sun; blooms from early spring to frost with deadheading; edible and bee-friendly too! Calendula seeds are also very easy to collect and save for next year.
• Coreopsis (Perennial): Full sun; blooms early summer into fall; bright color attracts many beneficial insects.
• Queen Anne’s Lace (Biennial): Full sun; blooms in late spring and summer; excellent landing pad for ladybugs.

Creating a Ladybug-Friendly Garden

1. Group Flowers Together

Ladybugs are more likely to visit dense groupings of plants. Use companion planting techniques to combine flowers with your vegetables. A bonus for having a dense group of plants is that it helps reduce weeds and cuts back on the water needed since the dense plants help shade the roots a bit more.

2. Offer Shelter

Include mulch, small shrubs, and tall flowers. Even letting parts of your garden remain slightly wild can help give ladybugs a place to rest and reproduce.

3. Avoid Chemical Pesticides

Most pesticides—organic or not—are harmful to ladybugs. Let these beneficial bugs do the pest control work for you!

4. Provide a Water Source

Use a shallow dish with pebbles to give ladybugs safe access to water, especially during dry spells. This is also a really fun project you can do with your kids! Let them create a fun water dish for their ladybugs.

5. Release Purchased Ladybugs

Yes—you can buy ladybugs! Release them early in the morning or late in the day. Spray your plants with a little water so they stick around and get hydrated.

When to Release Ladybugs

The best time to release ladybugs is in the early morning or just before sunset. Cool, damp conditions help them settle in. Mist your plants beforehand to encourage them to stick around and hydrate after shipping. While it may be tempting, don’t incorporate ladybugs too soon in the season if your plants are just taking off. Make sure to have a start on your blooms and attractant plants so they have enough to eat.

Keeping Ladybugs Around

To keep ladybugs coming back, maintain a consistent food source like aphids and flowering plants. Stagger your blooms and let your herbs bolt and flower naturally. Avoid pulling up all your crops at once to keep the habitat intact. Naturally, we don’t actually want to keep bugs like aphids around but if you are planting a garden every year this is an inevitable bug that will present itself.

My Final Thoughts

Attracting ladybugs to your garden is a win-win. They’re natural pest controllers, they’re safe around kids and pets, and they bring charm and color to your growing space. Add some of these plants to your garden plan and create a haven for these helpful beetles. Ladybugs are so fun to see and they are an amazing attraction for kids to play with and put in their bug catchers. I love having lots of ladybugs in my garden every year! Once you get them started they should come back year after year as long as they have the right environment to be happy and thrive.

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