FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

So I bought a pack of 1500 Ladybugs to try and fend off any unwanted creatures within my greenhouse and grow tents. Wondering if anyone knows much about them? I understand that they can be placed in a refrigerator to keep them "dormant", so to say but I was just curious how long they will last that way. How many times can I pull them out and allow them to be released? I am not letting too many out at one time as I just want them to eat anything I do not want. However, I have also read that they seem to really like the nectar that CP's put out and they sometimes can end up becoming food themselves.

Refrigerate for no longer than two weeks, do not freeze.
So, you could release 1/3 on receipt, refrigerate. 1/3 a week later, refrigerate. The rest a week later.
Yes, many will likely get trapped by the plants, and those leaves/traps will likely die as a result. Nothing you can really do about it.

BTW, sarrs love ladybugs. I would turn them loose in my grow tent to fight aphids and they just crammed themselves into the pitchers.

OK. Next question, what about Praying Mantis? Is it worth the time/effort to try them? There are about 400 or so per egg and I ordered a setup with 5 eggs. They are the Chinese version which are larger. However, they will not be released outdoors. I plan to get some of the Carolina eggs when I move my plants outside. I am going to grow some food that they can live on soo as not to only rely on bugs as that is what the CP's need. However, I do not want any bugs I do not introduce inside my grow tents or greenhouse.

Predator insects do help control populations, but that's it. Clemson University near me releases untold amounts of lady bugs they are like crawling over everything and i still get aphids.

All i do is I inspect my plants often in the spring and if i notice signs of sap suckers i manually kill them everyday for like a week so it wont spread.

How big is your greenhouse? General rule of thumb with mantises one ootheca of ~200 eggs per 1,500 square feet. If you have enough vertical space with plants filling it to provide structure, then you could go a bit more. If you have five oothecae of ~400 eggs coming, that's enough for a 15,000 square foot greenhouse.
They're voracious eaters, eating around their own body weight in prey items per day. An adult female, getting ready to mate or gravid already, needs more and can easily eat two to three times her body weight per day. They're also cannibalistic, and not just the female killing the male while they're mating. If there's not enough prey items, they will hunt down and eat their brothers and sisters.
Maybe release one ootheca in the greenhouse, not all eggs will hatch, and the rest in your yard.

Keep in mind as well, that, unless your greenhouse is completely sealed — no vents, no windows open, you rarely walk in or out the door, etc — you are going to have mantises or ladybugs escaping regularly from the greenhouse. It is not possible to stop them. Even though you might have screens on your vents, there are likely openings somewhere in the greenhouse structure that they can get through and they will. Trying to keep a high population of predators confined to a small area is difficult at best. Their nature is the spread out to lower competition amongst each other. As mentions, mantises will eat anything that they can catch, including other mantises , so if the babies can’t find enough to eat in your greenhouse, they will start killing each other off.