Who you gonna call? The bad, the good, the IPM...

So the other day when I was outside,
I went over to look at the apple tree.
Oh my* (*or insert words of similar surprise),
look at all those white things and all those black spots.
What are they? The bad.

(Click on the photos to see everything nice and close.)

Then I looked on a pot near the affected plants.

Whoa, Nelly, what have we here?

Could this be my real problem?
I saw one, then another, and another...

(I know, I know, there's only one in this picture,
but trust me, there were many of these critters!)

These were lady beetle nymphs!
Not the problem, but the solution, the good,
to my problem (millions of the tiny white bugs)!

And they were changing right before my eyes.

Below are a few changlings (I say changlings, you say pupae)
in the potted tree.
How many do you see?
(I'll give you a hint, there are more than three.)

Here's one that reminded me of an armadillo's shell,
or the protective armor Ra and his army use in Stargate.

Here's another good guy/girl going after the guilty parties.

And this is an Italian prune, with a few nymphs and changlings on it.

After closely looking at this photo,
it seems some of those are outer shells
that have been discarded, like snake skin.
What do you think? Do you know how the nymphs transform?

Here's a nice article about Lady Beetles and their life cycle.

Here's a link to information about beneficial insects.
It includes lots of great pictures and basic information.

Click here for a good article in Fine Gardening about attracting beneficial insects.

Oh, yes, part of the title was 'IPM', Integrated Pest Management.
Here's a link to a quick read on it.

On the afternoon I discovered my numerous nymphs,
I was able to share the information with
a neighbor who stopped by to talk plants.
She was quite happy to learn what they were
because she had seen some in her yard too.
Have you seen them in your yard?

~Aerie-el