Pretty visitors

Hello guys. I'm doing some arranges in the balcony where I have my cactus, I'll be posting em later. But today I went and check on my plants and found some good surprises.

Anyone that collect and grow cactus know that there are some plagues that can be really harmful to our plants. Specially the ones from the Dactylopius coccus family (from where I'm from they're called "cochinillas"). They develop quite fast and if the plant is still young or relatively small, they can weaken it to the point where the plant itself can no longer survive. In the nature one can almost always find cactus with signs of "cochinillas", either from past times or still living from the plant. That's because they are a natural plague.

I've had some hard times dealing with these bugs in the past. Some of my cactus were quite invaded and getting rid of the plague took time and some effort. One downside is that if one does not pay attention and detect them as soon as they appear, they can spread throughout the garden.

Of course there are some chemicals to fight them (thank god). But there is also a "natural" way of controlling this problem. And that is: natural preys.

So today, during my daily routine of checking my plants (we've had strong rains and winters during the weekend) I found a very nice surprise. Ladybugs!! These are super useful as they prey on the cochinillas and even lay some eggs if they find "nesting" sites from the plagues.

At first I thought they were some ants (I suspect some of them disgraceful little insects are feeding off of one of my cactus). But as I rushed to take them off a smile drew on my face. Then I spotted 4 more of them and I proceeded to picture them :)

Ddid you know they are tiny beatles that get the name "Ladybug" from a derivated of "Ladybird" which itself derivates from "Our lady's bug", term that came from Mary's representation in old paintings.

And for some final treat, whilst I was looking for more of those beautiful bugs I found a special surprise!!

The one above is from a Cereus peruvianus that I rescued a year ago. Particularly this one was about to be thrown as it seemed it was dying (guess what was the cause... COCHINILLAS!!) but when I took it out the pot I found some strong roots, so I gave it a chance and a year later it has grown a very beautiful and strong ramificaction. And now that ramification is starting to produce flowers.

WHAT A BEAUTIFUL WORLD THE CACTUS WORLD IS!!

Well, that's it for today. Hope you liked it, have a great week!!