Mall Of America celebrated Earth Day by releasing 72,000 ladybugs inside the mall to eat the plant-feeding aphids as an alternate to pesticides, Monday, April 22, reports Medical Daily.
The largest mall in the United States, which has the capacity to hold seven Yankee Stadiums, sure had room for plenty of bugs this Earth Day. A whopping 72,000 ladybugs were released to feast on the aphids that were eating away tropical plants in the mall, which work as natural air purifiers. Ladybirds are popularly known to feed on aphids and have a great appetite. They lay hundreds of eggs and when these eggs hatch, the larvae starts feeding immediately.
MOA's Senior Manager of Environmental Services Lydell Newby, impressed with the idea of using ladybugs instead of harmful pesticides, told KARE11 in a statement that "ladybugs are what I like to call, sort of a biological defense system."
"They can eat and eat and eat. A ladybug can eat thousands of aphids," Newby added. "You can release some lady bugs in your own garden. And in an outside climate, once the conditions are right, they can live in your garden forever."
MOA decided to go the eco-friendly way to get rid of the aphids, which not only destroyed tropical plants in the mall, but are also known to feed on vegetables and spread viruses to squash, cucumbers, pumpkins, melons, lettuces and bok choy. However, the decision was not taken well by a few customers. They voiced their complaints to MOA's manager and also took their complaints to MOA's Facebook official page. The customers were concerned about the ladybugs flying into the food.
A spokesperson for MOA explained about the safety involved with this method. "We've been doing this for years," the MOA spokesperson said. "No ladybug takeover yet. Chances are, you've visited the mall during this short period and have never noticed them. They are completely harmless."
Furthermore, if chemicals were used in the process to eliminate the aphids, it could contaminate the neighboring properties and wouldn't destroy the aphids thoroughly, says the report.
The Mall of America is located in Bloomington, Minnesota, and promotes the idea of "Live Green". An MOA blog post released Monday said that the mall houses 30,000 live plants. Also, it said that MOA recycles more than 60 percent of its waste, 2,400 tons of food for local farms, and converts bio-waste into 600,000 lbs of bio-diesel fuel to charge the mall's security vehicles.
