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["Griffin Gardens" <griffingardens@earthlink.net>]

A good, long & warm fall here in central MN, made necessary for grape ripening by the bad, long & cold spring. The problem is that now, with the cold nights and short days, the hoards of ladybugs take sustenance/refuge in the clusters and get themselves involved in the wine in numbers that qualify them as an ingredient. I let the buckets of picked grapes stand overnight with thin strips of wood stuck into the tops of the pails to act as a springboard to freedom, an option which hundreds take, but hundreds more decline... which eventually leaves them suspended in the must.

 

1. Are there any other any other methods of separating this beetle from the grapes ?

2. I've heard that ladybugs depend for their safety on being known to birds for tasting bad or being otherwise undesirable 

    as a menu selection. If "too many cooks spoil the broth", how many ladybugs spoil the wine ?

 

Dave - Zone 4a, looking at 3