THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN News
WWW.KANSAN.COM WEDNESDAY, JULY 9, 2008
8
LAWRENCE
Kristin Hoppa/KANSAN
Crystal Miles, Lawrence horticulture manager, releases ladybugs in hopes of preventing pests from damaging flowers in Watson Park. The ladybugs are an alternative, pesticide-free method in eliminating spider-mites and aphids.
Natural pesticides prove inadequate
BY KRISTIN HOPPA
khoppa@kansan.com
Two weeks after Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department employees released 18,000 ladybugs around town, the results are getting mixed reviews.
City officials released the bugs as a pest control measure in hopes of controlling a growing aphid population at the Union Pacific Depot, Buford Watson Jr. Park and flower beds along Massachusetts Street.
But Crystal Miles, horticulture manager, said that it may still be too soon to tell how effective the ladybugs will be.
"We are trying to give it another month to see if they will lay eggs and give off a second generation," Miles said.
Miles said that the goal of the project was not to eliminate the pests all together, but to bring the environment back to a "natural level."
"We are trying to get a sustainable level of aphids," Miles said.
Miles said one area that had seen improvement was the Union Pacific
Depot. However, one area that has not seen improvements is Buford Watson, Jr. Park, Seventh and Kentucky streets. However, Miles still had hope that the pesticide-free method would work.
City commissioners urged the department to find pesticide-free methods of controlling the pest population in hopes of promoting pesticide-free parks.
Greg McDonald, manager of Sunrise Garden Center, 1501 Learnard Ave., sold the first batch of ladybugs to the city as a test before city employees released the 18,000 bugs.
"A lot of people are going for organic methods of pest removal." McDonald said.
The center also sells preying mantises as another option for pesticide-free pest control. However, McDonald said bugs did not work as well as chemical pesticides in most cases.
"You can't expect bugs to stay there," McDonald said. "When a second generation of pests hatch, the bugs will be gone. If here is no food for the bugs to eat, they leave. That's the real downside."
Edited by Rustin Dodd
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