It's hard to evaluate the success of the ladybug experiment so far, as it's only day two, I guess. I put them out Saturday night, and here they are on Sunday morning. They had crawled up the trellis from the ground.
Some were wandering into the plant. The picture below shows both two ladybugs, but also how sorry-looking many of the honeysuckle leaves are. Even if the aphids disappear, the damage they did will be irreversible for this season, anyway.
Below is a shoot with a particularly gross infestation. Shortly after I took this picture I cut off this shoot and threw it in a bucket of water to drown the aphids. I hope aphids are drownable. I just couldn't stand to leave them there.
A few ladybugs had already wandered over to nearby plants, like these two on these lavender blooms.
Today there are fewer ladybugs in the honeysuckle (I didn't take a picture), but still some. Well, the long-term idea is that even if many of the ladybugs do fly away, some will leave behind eggs, and ladybug larvae eat even more aphids than ladybugs. They're not as attractive, however.
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