Flies & Ladybirds!
Paul C
Posts: 5
Hello Gardeners' World.
First post, novice gardener here. 2nd summer of gardening.
Cutting a long story short, I have decided to build/buy a small ladybird house and place it in the middle of some dill, with the hope that this will sort out my unidentified flying beastie problem.
Has anyone here any experience of attracting (and keeping) ladybirds and offer any advice on things such as positioning of the home and how might one deter spiders entering and eating my little winged friends? Any general advice would be greatly appreciated.
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...sorry, I forgot to add, also any requirements of said house
I have spotted a variety for sales from £5-£20 and I am sure there would be many more expensive. What do I actually need and what are nice to haves, and why?
Hello Paul and Welcome
Lots of advice here http://www.bbc.co.uk/breathingplaces/bug_home/ . There's no rush as the ladybirds and lacewings need the 'home' for the winter, not right now.
The best thing you can do to encourage ladybirds, lacewings and other beneficial insects is not to use any pesticides.
And don't forget that for most of the year wasps are busy eating aphids so welcome them into your garden too 
Don't worry about the spiders - we really can't micro-manage nature - it'll sort itself out as long as we don't poison it
To get lots of ladybirds, plant a cytisus x spachianus, mine is covered in ladybirds at the moment. The advantages of this plant too are drought tolerant, isn't fussed on soil really and grows very quickly and tall. Mine is almost 2 metres tall at 3 years old
Thanks for the replies. I'll give this a try.
Appreciated!
Hi Edd, yeah I know that's an issue, To be honest I am not sure how I can tell what they are. Like I say I am an inexperienced gardener and have no idea what I am looking for.
What I do know is that they generally hang out in the grass until someone walks on it, or I cut it, then there are masses of them flying around. They died off in winter, but seem to have started to come back. I hoped winter would kill them off once and for all, but no.
They were eating the leaves and flowers from my pansies.
What else can I tell you that may help identify?
They came about after I converted my new garden from chuckies to grass.
Any ideas how I could catch one/some and take a close up picture?