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I noticed today that one of my struggling garden plants is absolutely covered in bugs. I have no idea if those two things are related (we had a massive drought), but I wanted to find out what these little dudes are, and whether they're friend or foe. Any thoughts?
Edited to add: located in western Europe.
No worries, I think I sounded harsher than I intended too.
As far as I know, ladybugs shouldn't have a direct harmful effect on plants. But what about their nymphs (is that the word? In my language it's Larva), could they cause a plant to suffer?
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But no, to my knowledge the nymphs/larva are highly aggressive predators of plant pests. If they truly are in fact ladybug larvae it's likely that they're a response to the pests that were attacking your already stressed plants. It may be worth keeping a lookout for aphids and mites to see if you can spot a pattern there.