A ladybug relative nymph in the foreground and a mature individual in the background. The tiny thing next to the nymph might be a larvae.

Yesterday, as James and I were on one of our birding walks around Xandari, we ran into José Luis, who had a couple new things to show us about the gardens and orchard that he runs. At first, it looked like a ragged young tree, its leaves half-devoured and its trunk stained black. But we quickly learned that the damage done to the tree was a necessary sacrifice: it was a breeding ground for a type of ladybug, which takes care of aphids that can sometimes infest the nearby trees that produce citrus fruits or mangoes. And that black stain on the trunk? Well, look below:

Maturing ladybug relatives

Listening to José Luis talk about his shock at other people spraying trees like these with pesticides to kill the “plagues” of ladybugs, I was reminded of the process of integrated pest management, or IPM, which I wrote a brief post about a year and a half ago. Happy throwback Thursday!