@skankinpickle a bug hotel is a great idea! I had one in my old garden, although it quickly got lost among the fast-growing shrubs so I never really saw what took up residence there.
That spiky plant in the photo is a cordyline (not sure if that’s the correct spelling). Got it for £8 from Asda! But… I’ve had it only a few weeks and it’s starting to look a bit ropey already. I think maybe I’ve under-watered it 😒 or maybe it’s a case of “buy cheap, buy twice” 😅
My ladybirds and larvae arrived this morning and I spent a good couple of hours deploying the larvae (which are tiny) in their release bags. I've concentrated on the Victoria plum and green gage as they're the ones with the more active problem, the Czar plum is a write off for the year. I'm going to release the ladybirds this evening on the rose and took a look at it earlier to see how bad things had got and whaddya know, there's a ladybird strolling around and two new batches of eggs on the leaves 🤦♀️
The larvae are tiny (presumably very newly hatched) and they come in a small box with shredded paper. It took so long because I was sorting through the shredded paper to see which bits had the larvae on and which bits I could discard. As for the ladybirds themselves, never again. Trying to get them on the tree was on a par with herding cats. Whilst encouraging one to go onto a leaf, the others start crawling out of the box, several of which make a beeline for my hand. Before I knew it, I had four or five that were past my wrist and the first one STILL hadn't taken a step onto a leaf! It was an absolute nightmare. Some of them flew off and may or may not still be in my garden 😂
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@Fairygirl ermmm no, I guess I’m not 100% sure… I will inspect again tomorrow - will use my loupe magnifier! 😎
Do let us know how you get on 😊