Are they 'Good Guys' or a scam? (Nature's Good Guys)

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Bought some ladybugs for mites. They did okay but never propagated. Then @PlantShepherd posted this link and I listened.

I had ordered cucmeris and lacewings taking a 3 prong approach all from the same company and thru Amazon. I might have seen one lacewing. And no cucmeris at all. Bought the ladybugs twice. I believe it was all a a scam and everyone should be warned. Anyone have a positive experience? I did everything right I think and the ladybugs did not breed…

Been reading the reviews and a lot of them are negative of late

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All they did for me was fly onto my HPS bulb and get toasted. Smelled liked my house was burning.

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@hewhocoruptz , if you put a droplet of cokeacola on their back , when it dries and becomes sticky they can’t open their wings to fly , I was told
: )

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Natures’s Good Guys are actually TipTop Biocontrol or Gardening Zone or … they have many names . They are not real scam , you can find their products in many stores , but they are terrible company and yes doing scam things , they have terrible customer service , and acting like they dont sell directly , that they sell only to dealers , when you call the dealers they have same phone number lol . Never order online they will sell you rice hulls , if you see their products in stores they are fine . Terrible company , thas why they are cheap . Go with ARBICO , little bit more expensive but no problems . Stay away from TipTop and all those names that they hide , i know one day i will visit their office , to say hi ! :smiley:

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Yup the lacewings were nothing but rice hulls.

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My last order was 10 000 lacewings larvaes (not eggs) , not a single one . I use my microscope i left the bottles for a week and still keeping them , ZERO ! I called TIP TOP they say they work with dealers , i need to call Gardening Zone . They didnt have number i wrote email never respond , somehow i found the number of Gardening Zone and the Phone Menu was : Welcome to Natures God Guys …bla…bla…bla at the end thanks for calling Tip Top Biocontrol :@ , the guy who respond the call was the same guy from Tip Top … :@ comedy :confused:

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And if you want to keep your IPM with beneficial insects , detect the good guys in your garden and try to buy them , dont buy beneficial that they are not established in your garden , most likely they dont like the environment , i can always see ladybugs and lacewings in my garden .
Or Hover Fly larvae very good for aphids , to bad they are not available for buy , but my garden is always full of them , most of the people are killing Hover Fly larvaes , thinking they are the bad guys …

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I saw that video when firstly posted and it makes sense, I would never buy ladybugs online … no|nullxnull

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Ladybugs have never worked for me. Like others have mentioned they seemed like more of a fire hazard than anything. For spider mites, I would highly recommend phytoseiulus persimilis. I have also used neoseiulus californicus for mites. Cucumeris are good for thrips as are swirski. Lacewings and other parasitoids for aphids. H. miles and steinernema feltiae for fungus gnats and soil dwelling pests. :v:

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That and boil the roots eh? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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thanks for that little snippet. Bookmarked. Whether a thread gets a lot of views matters more than likes really. Best to put it out there so no one else gets burned rather than save oneself from personal embarrassment.

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Same here, ordered 2000 predatory mites received 2 viles of predatory mites one had no activity one had some activity. I immediately emailed they said “I should have received one vial with 2000 mites so All is good I got what I ordered”…nevermind that each vial had 1K marked on it. When I left a bad review I got an email attacking my intelligence, growing ability, and integrity he then said he would only refund half my money and to take my business elsewhere. I found out they do business under at least a half dozen different names 3 of them on amazon.

Blockquote

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Made some purchases this summer and I am very pleased with the outcome . Definitely will be ordering again.

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I love natures good guys. 10k predators every three weeks i get the tri mix

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I ordered the fly predators , because they were horrid outside . They definitely did the job .

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If you sign up add predators to your cart. The leave them in there. They will send 5-10% off code

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I bought predators for fungas gnats few months back. Product arrived fine and I dispersed them on 5 gallon grow bags, bonsai moms in 5” plastic containers and the rest on a big can of mixed soil waiting to be used. By-by gnats. I checked on my bonsai moms couple weeks ago with microscope and still see some on the soil. No gnats in site.

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For real ill spend at natures good guys over arbico.

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I’v got a mild case of thrips, been hitting them with Dr Zymes as i see mature adults… but it hasnt eradicated them completely. I’d like to get more agressive and thought of ladybugs as i’v read mentioned in the past… but this thread is awful indicisive…

I’m about to start flowering and really would like to get ahead of this. Ladybugs or no? And from where?

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I only ever had thrips once and dish soap and water worked
Sprayed the plant back and front of the leaves for 5 days,they were gone and I had a shit load of them

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