lady BUGS

1000 of them in a tiny straw-filled sack. "They are quite voracious," says Catherine at Plant World. "Have you ever seen a lady bug pupa?" I was embarrassed to admit I had not. Then I saw a drawing of one - Hey! I've seen those in that tree already! One of my neighbours must be importing straw bags of lady bugs, too!
Meanwhile, jerky neighbour has taken my husband aside to complain. He's still spraying his whole garden, inspite of the city ban on pesticides. "oh, yeah, Nature, " he said to me dismissively years ago, when I asked him to tell me when he was spraying so I could close my asthmatic son's bedroom windows. He's never bothered to tell me ahead of time, and still gets his old spray can out every spring. He's convinced, and told my husband so, that my composter is the source of all these aphids and wasps, and if I could just get rid of the composter, and spray everything like he does, the world would be to rights.
Mostly, it just makes me want to buy a plot of land where I don't have a neighbour 10 ft from my patio. Plantation style, I think.
Ladybugs are going out tonight for the first time. We'll see what they can do. And the arborist is coming next week to prune the tree, so we should have a cleaned up yard soon.