[chickpeacurry]

This year we seem to have loads of lady birds.  I have also never had so many ants snails.  I wondered do lady birds eat the plants I have so much stuff being eaten.  Is it advisable to put lady birds on other plants like chilli s to eat the green fly.

[Maarten]

As far as I am aware, ladybirds and their larvae are complete carnivores. They can eat amazing numbers of green/blackfly. However, whenever I have put a ladybird on a plant with greenfly, it did not look interested. I think it might be that they are very mobile themselves and because of the abundance of the food they don't bother with eating when they have been disturbed. They just walk or fly off and find their own preferred dining place.

[ghost61]

I always thought it was ladybird larvae that ate greenfly not the adult?

[shedmeister]

Lady birds (or where I hail from) bishy barny bees will not eat your plants.
They will scoff aphids although they tend to knock more off the plant than they eat.
A recent gardening presenter(sorry but cannot remember which one) called them a dumbledore bug. He also said that the aphids that are knocked from the plants tend to provide food for money spiders.
Ants milk aphids and do indeed farm them for this purpose.

[pigguns]

Ants will also see off ladybirds to protect 'their' aphids.

[shedmeister]

Ants will also see off ladybirds to protect 'their' aphids.

just watched that on spring watch

[grinling]

spray the plants with water and a bit of washing up liquid.