Green Lacewing 1,000 Eggs - NaturesGoodGuys

I had a serious aphid problem on one of the flowering bushes in my garden. Tried lady bugs but they mostly just flew away. But these little guys worked! When I firsts received them I was really doubtful because all I saw was what looked like 2 small dead larvae. At the start of day 4 I emailed the company asking how much longer it should take for the larvae eggs to start hatching. They quickly responded, saying to give it another day or two. The next morning there were tiny larvae moving around in the bag they came in, and they are really tiny, so I had to use a magnifying glass to see them better. Also, not many had hatched so I was still doubtful because I had A LOT of aphids. First I sprinkled the bush lightly with water, to give the lacewing larvae a water source, but not a lot because you don’t want the little sachet pouches to get wet when you place them on the plants. I followed the directions they provided very precisely; I placed them in the shade & tried to shelter them from rain. I tilted the bags on a 45 degree angle to minimize water getting in if it rained. I became doubtful again because it took a few more days to begin seeing quite a few on the bushes leaves. Little by little I could see more of them traveling around in search of aphids, and after a week there was a big improvement. Two or three weeks later NO MORE APHIDS! These are living creatures that have to survive whatever conditions might happen while being sent thru the mail, but if they survive that, they will definitely do a great job with the worst of aphid infestations, and without the use of chemical! Great product!

Edit: It's been 12 days since the eggs were delivered so it's definitely been more than 2 weeks since they were laid. None have hatched yet. Waiting to hear back from the company but I'll probably just use a pesticide at this point. Regret not starting the pesticide sooner since I would have been closer to having the aphids gone by now. My order came on Monday and no eggs have hatched yet. I contacted customer service and they said it can take between 7 and 14 days for them to hatch. This would be useful information to put in the listing so you can decide if this is a good option for you. I wont be home a few days next week and with my luck the eggs will hatch while I'm gone and they will eat each other. And at that point my light aphid problem might turn into a heavy infestation. Between shipping time and hatching time it can take 3 weeks to have larvae. If none hatch and I need more it's going to be another 3 weeks??

What is shipped are tiny eggs. Smaller that 1 mm, difficult to see with the naked eye for many people. Definitively the delivery and setup to use could be much better: If you order them in the hot months of the year and the delivery takes time to arrive, everything may arrive dead. Also, if you order just "a few" (like 1000), huge hanging paper bags may not be the best idea. But if you pay for a fast delivery and place the rice hulls correctly where the aphids are, you can see how the tiny larvae go straight to the work and how they grow in the matter if hours. And the larger they get, the more aphids they eat and the farther they spread in the plant. So then they will work great! But if you accidentally wet the rice hulls while watering the plants, or because of the rain, or you put them in the wrong places, far from aphids or where the wind blows them away, you just wasted your money.

Just this week I saw an adult lacewing from (I’m assuming) last summer’s lacewing release. I only saw a couple of the larvae munching around on the cucumbers so it was good to see that they remembered my little balcony garden and decided to lay their egg babies here. :) So for those that never actually see them in the package, they’re there. Promise. Just hurry and get them outside so they can acclimate and start munching quickly.

First, the shipment (which included pirate bugs and green lacewing eggs) arrived in a timely manner, were delivered to the front door (hence no cooking in the mailbox), and was well packed, included insulating material. The pirate bugs were live, and when I released them, it appeared that a large proportion (perhaps most) were alive and active. Instructions on how to place the pirate bugs and lacewing eggs were clear to understand. The downsides. First, after about two days, I could not find any evidence of the pirate bugs. Now, they are a very tiny insect, so seeing them directly would be difficult. But the large number in the order that I released in our heated greenhouse should have made a noticeable dent in the aphid population. It did not. Second, I've seen no evidence of any of the hypothetical 1,000 lacewings. The adults are larger (they grow up to 3/4 of an inch) and hence are much easier to spot than pilot bugs. The greenhouse has been at about 45 - 55 degrees F at night. Perhaps that was too cool for the eggs to hatch? I don't know, and the instructions gave no information about temperature tolerances. The bottom line is that I don't know for sure if the problem was with the quality of the insects delivered from NaturesGoodGuys or the environment into which they were released. But I lean toward the former, because out of the large number of pirate bugs and lacewing eggs, I would have expected to see at least a 10% survival rate even under poor conditions, and even if the beneficial insects were hard to spot, I should have seen a decrease in the aphid population rather than an increase. If I order beneficial insects again, I will order ladybugs. At least they are much easier to spot and hence to monitor!

First, these shipped very fast, and I received them within a few days of purchase. I really appreciate the fast shipping. The packaging seemed well done. After reading the reviews, I thought that most people probably didn't look closely enough for the tiny lacewing larvae, and decided to give them a try. I bought these to treat fungus gnats on my house plants...inside my house. I brought all my plants into a single room so I could keep the lacewings monitor warmth and keep them semi-contained, then misted my plants to get them ready. I regularly inspected my plants and soil closely for lacewing larvae. I got really excited when I found one and took a picture. The egg it hatched from had been stuck in the original packaging. Throughout the next couple weeks, I inspected the plants with a flashlight and magnifying glass both in the morning and in the evening. Unfortunately, that single lacewing was the only one I ever saw. Over a month later, there also seems to be the same amount (probably more, actually) of fungus gnats. It's possible that I just got a bad batch or maybe getting lacewing eggs to hatch is just something that is hit and miss. Next time I plan to look for already hatched larvae instead of eggs.

These were so confusing upon arrival I honestly don't even know if I released them properly, they came with one sheet of directions and it was all pictures but the pictures didn't match any of the items that shipped. Then on top of it I didn't notice a single bug hatch out of these boxes - waste of money, do not buy

There are Whos in Whoville! The tracking said these eggs were supposed to arrive on Monday - Wednesday (I ordered during the Coronavirus Crisis) but fortunately arrived on Saturday so were in the mail only 2-3 days before they arrived. I divvied them up into the provided envelopes but once they started hatching divided them up more into little makeshift paper packets because I did see some munching on each other (they are cannibalistic). Most of the eggs were in one packet because they all slide down to the bottom of the pack, so I'd try to redivide them more evenly if I order again, and into more packets. I can't speak to whether there's 1000, but I definitely have seen a good 50 of them and I only just noticed that they're hatching (Sunday afternoon). They are VERY small, smaller than a deer-tick I'd say which is maybe why so many people haven't seen them. I hope this helps to finish off my thrips/scales/spidermite issues! This was way more cost effective than other ways of getting them IMO so I'm happy I took a chance on eggs!