Does neem oil kill ladybugs, is a question because it would mostly signify that you have too many ladybugs in your garden. These insects are mostly beneficial, but you still have to keep their population in check.
While neem does not actively kill ladybugs, you can help repel ladybugs from your garden using neem. Read this article to learn how to keep the ladybug and other pest populations in your garden in check with neem oil.
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How To Repel Ladybugs With Neem Oil
To repel ladybugs with neem oil, check your yard or garden and note the plants or regions with ladybugs. When you know where to spray, prepare your neem oil and spray the plants consistently for a few weeks, and make sure to provide the right gardening care.
Neem oil does not kill ladybugs. When you spray neem oil on plants, the bugs that die are those that eat the leaves of the plants. While neem oil can also kill some pests through direct contact with the exoskeleton, ladybugs are usually not affected.
It is quite rare to see neem oil harm beneficial insects, as these insects do not eat your plant leaves. Ladybugs are beneficial, so you can only use neem oil to repel them by killing the pests that they eat in the garden.
1. Check for Ladybugs in Your Garden
The first step in reducing the population of ladybugs in your garden is to find areas with more ladybugs. You will notice that the insects prefer certain plants or regions to others in your garden. Find and mark these plants or regions because you will concentrate more on them when spraying your neem.
You will mostly find ladybugs around flowering or damaged plants, and this can be a reason to free from them. In addition, you may also be frustrated, if they are growing in larger numbers, so keep in mind that you would have to us neem soultion and free from them as they repel.
As beneficial insects, what attracts ladybugs to your garden are pests such as Japanese beetles, aphids, mites, etc. These pests can cause plant diseases and are very disastrous to your plants. However, ladybugs help control their population. This is why you will most likely find ladybugs around damaged plants; the ladybugs are there for the pests that caused the damage.
While they will not actively eat the leaves of your plants, they also enjoy nectar from the flowers of your plants. Therefore, you will also find ladybugs around flowering plants.
Ladybugs help control the population of garden pests in your garden, so killing them can be detrimental to you. However, repel or control the population of ladybugs in your garden to keep them in check, so it is important to know why they are in your garden.
2. Get Your Neem Product
To repel pests with neem, you need pure neem oil. You can buy any pesticide made with neem if available in the store. However, you can make your pesticide yourself when you have pure neem, or if you have the option, you can even make neem yourself if you have the seeds.
Just ensure that every neem you buy is pure neem. If you buy diluted neem, it will be less effective, so investing in a pure one is better, as you would be the one to work on the right concentration you want to give.
3. Prepare the Neem
For this step, you need insecticidal soap or any emulsifier to help mix the neem and water. You can’t use pure neem directly in your garden, as it can burn plant leaves. You need an emulsifier to dilute the neem with water so that it can mix properly with the water, and soap happens to be the simplest and most available emulsifier.
When you get your water, emulsifier, and neem, mix them all. Mix one tablespoon of emulsifier, and one tablespoons of neem, then you should mix them with a liter of water in a bottle so that it would dilute properly. When you mix everything properly, you have got yourself a neem product.
4. Test the Product
Your neem will be effective in repelling pests. However, you have to be certain first. To test the product, spray it on a plant with visible pests such as mites and aphids. You can also spray it on plants with ladybugs, but ensure that there are other pests on the plant.
After 24 hours, check the plant. A good neem product will not burn the plant leaves. A good neem product will also kill most of the pests present on the plant. You can move on to the next step when you ascertain that your neem product is good.
5. Spray Your Garden With the Neem
It is time to spray the oil in your garden. You first have to focus on the infested crops. Target the leaves and parts with visible pests—the more leaves and plants you can spray, the better. When you are done with the infested plants, move on to the others.
Spray the root region of your plants as well, just in case pests are attacking the plants from below. This will help kill a lot of pests on the plant, and this can also be where the ladybugs would stay, and make sure to do so during the night when they won’t be as active.
6. Reapply the Product
Spraying your plants once will surely kill pests, but it won’t be enough, considering the life cycle of pests. You may have sprayed the plant when some pests are still in eggs. To ensure you kill every pest off your plant, spray the plants with neem twice or thrice weekly. In less than a month after consistently spraying the plants, you will see a reduction in pests and ladybug populations.
To repel ladybugs with other methods, you can use natural repellents such as diatomaceous earth, but it won’t help as much as neem oil will. Now you can spray the solution you prepared around your garden again to prevent pests from entering the garden.
7. Check the Ladybug Population in Your Garden
Neem oil spray is surely effective; on thee other hand, you should also remember that your major purpose for spraying the oil is to reduce the ladybug population in your garden. Therefore, you can only agree that the oil is effective when you see a reduction in the ladybug population.
For ladybugs that you see around your plants because of pests, killing the pests will reduce the ladybug population. In a month, you should see a significant decline in the ladybug population in your garden.
Another choice that you have is using a product that can quickly kill ladybugs, a chemical pesticide or insecticide. Spraying insecticide on plants in your garden kills every insect pest and other related organisms, but with neem oil, you will be repelling them in the long run.
You can also choose a popular natural repellent for ladybugs, such as some diatomaceous earth, but you don’t need to do so if you already use neem. This product is readily available, very safe to use, and effective in keeping pests off your garden. You only have to spray it on the perimeter of the garden to keep pests off the garden.
You can also spray the pest control product directly on the plants with ladybugs and other pests. In a few weeks, you will see very few to no pests in the garden.
8. Provide the Right Care
Though you will see ladybugs around damaged crops, there’s a high chance that the ladybugs are not responsible for the plant damage. Ladybugs search for plant pests, such as smaller beetles, which are responsible for the damage. When your plants become too damaged, prune off the damaged parts, and they will not come across that part, after you have also sprayed neem.
When pests destroy a plant, they will move to others. To prevent this from happening, prune off the damaged part of the plant. Pruning the plant will help remove the pests from your garden. You will also remove ladybugs, as they will follow the pests out of the garden.
In addition, if you wish to place other types of plants that are repellent, you can place some plants to help repel pests from your garden. For example, mums are the types of plants that keep ladybugs off the garden, as they have some insect-repelling properties.
You only need to plant the mums in different areas in your garden. You can even plant the mums in pots inside, as they will repel these pests. If ladybugs disturb you inside your home, grow potted mums to keep the bugs out.
Conclusion
Surely, neem oil works, and you would be glad that you used it, while you prepare to get rid of pests from your garden, remember these points from the article:
- Ladybugs are beneficial, as they help keep your plants safe from dangerous pests.
- The presence of these bugs in your garden indicates that there are more dangerous pests in the garden.
- While you try to get rid of the ladybugs, a better approach is to get rid of what attracts them to the garden in the first place.
- So long as you consistently use neem in your garden, you will fix the ladybug problem soon, as the other pests will die off.
- Remember to keep your garden clean and pest-free if you don’t want ladybugs in it.
You are ready to use the neem oil insecticide in your garden.
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