Good Bugs vs Bad Bugs

At Maungatapere Berries we try to minimise our enviromental impact as much as possible so one of our ways of controlling pests in the orchard is to use predator bugs to eliminate the pests that try to eat our fruit. One of these bugs is the common ladybug (seen in the photo as a young bug – these cute little bugs are voracious eaters of soft-bodied insects and larvae). One of our workers spotted a young ladybug and wondered what this was. We encourage workers to take photos of anything they are unsure of and share them with Linzi, our Plant Health Director, who quickly reassured that this is in fact a “good bug”. We love these hardworking ladybugs!