Ladybird Larvae

Hi,
We have quite a bad infestation of aphids on one of our roses in the front garden. We found one single ladybird and put it straight on the Rose where it got to work straight away eating the aphids, but has now flown away. We are also planting plenty of plants to encourage ladybirds into the front garden, and we have a bug hotel out there too so hopefully they'll come to us naturally anyway.

But, has anyone had success with buying ladybird larvae to clear aphids?

Apparently the larvae eat more aphids than the adult ladybirds, and have the added bonus of not being able to fly off

We don't like to use chemicals as we try to be as wildlife friendly as we can be, so we thought we'd give the larvae a try, but just wondered what others experiences were if you've used them.

 

I've heard great things about them as the larvae do eat more and aren't able to fly off like the 'adults'. I think it is the right time of year to buy them?

 

Yes, they're available now. We are going to give them a go, so fingers crossed they'll sort the aphid problem out for us.
We've got roses in the back garden too, but we get lots of birds in the back garden and have seen them picking off the odd aphid so don't have an infestation there so far.

 

I went out and collected some last year, also soapy water sprayed on them works.

 

I just grab the rose bud and squeeze the greenfly. End up with greenfingers.

 

I'm a bit squeamish for that @WeeTam and there's soooo many of them on this particular poor rose. I've ordered 100 ladybird larvae, that should sort it!