Ladybugs Provide Pest Control at Mall of America

Until now, Minnesota’s Mall of America has probably been most known for its size. Covering almost 100 acres, it’s the largest retail complex in the US – about the size of seven Yankee Stadiums.

Although it’s in one of the coldest regions of the country, the mall doesn’t have a central heating system! Passive solar streams through its 1.2 miles of skylights and warms the ridiculously large space.

That space is filled with some 30,000 plants (including 400 trees) – besides bringing nature inside, they clean the air. And, instead of using insectides to control aphids and other pests –  which are a problem in the mall – management released 72,000 ladybugs to do the job.

"Ladybugs are what I like to call, sort of a biological defense system," Lydell Newby, senior manager of environmental services told the local news station, KARE 11.

The mall’s security vehicles also run on biodiesel, consuming the fryer fat produced by the restaurants there. 

If you want ladybugs to do this work outside, you need to provide a diversity of native plants that attract them and keep them there, otherwise they will disperse.

As so often is the case these days, native ladybugs in the US are having difficulties because of the loss of biodiversity and competition from Japanese ladybugs.

Many natural-oriented pest control firms carry ladybugs for this purpose these days.