How many ladybugs will stay in your yard after you release them?

Almost all of the ladybugs will go elsewhere after you release them in your garden or yard.

If you have enough aphids for the ladybugs to eat to make it worth their while, about 5 to 10 percent will stay.

It helps to have water readily available near where they are released—, some suggest watering the yard the night before the release. An average ladybug purchase should be about three thousand ladybugs for about a quarter of an acre of yard.

And because of aphid breeding cycles, some experts say a second spreading of ladybugs may be necessary not long after the first.