After repotting and getting ready for spring, my maples have have started leafing out really nicely, and since last year they were pretty stressed due to novice decisions on my part, I hope to make this year alot better for them. I've read spring is a good time to start preparing for the usual pests that plague the garden by introducing natural predators (nematodes, green lacewing, lady bugs). I'm curious to hear if anyone uses this as a big part of their pest control and how effective it is. Are they best used before any signs of pests? I'm trying to do preventative control rather than catch them when they're fully thriving and starting to do their damage. I live in an urban environment with a small yard (grass and a couple of yard trees), and all my maples are in containers.
with most of the predators if you dont have a host or target insect present when you introduce them, they leave. or die. Unless you have a constant food source for the predators their population will reduce accordingly.
Thanks for that info. I realize as I read more about it that one problem with using predators is they will fly away if there's not much to eat. It seems that if natural predators is the way I want to go I also have to consider other factors in using them.
