SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Arctic Farmer Nursery has called in reinforcements to deal with pests in its greenhouse.

Christian Frenette, a horticulturist with Arctic Farmer Nursery in Yellowknife, shows off the greenhouse's newest staff members. On Friday, 36,000 ladybugs arrived to help keep aphids under control. - Alyssa Smith/ NNSL photo

A shipment of 36,000 ladybugs arrived Friday charged with ridding the greenhouse of aphids.

Horticulturist Christian Frenette said the bugs were an eco and cost-friendly alternative to pesticides.

"Compared to spraying, they're way cheaper," he said. "They are just as effective as spraying for getting rid of aphids."

The batch that arrived on Friday cost the business about $200.

Frenette estimated that without pesticides or a natural predator - such as the ladybugs - he might lose up to half of the greenhouse's plants to aphids.

"Aphids are a huge, huge problem in the greenhouse world," he said.

Frenette said the average adult ladybug can eat between 30 and 50 aphids per day.

He added, once the ladybugs' larvae begin to hatch, each larval bug can eat up to 200 aphids per day.

"The larvae are much bigger than the adults," he said. "And they are very hungry."

The ladybugs travelled for five days from a commercial supplier in Surrey, B.C.

"They travel quite well," Frenette said.

"There were only two dead out of the last batch of 500."

The first shipment was a test, Frennette said.

He wanted to make sure the ladybugs would survive the trip to Yellowknife before ordering a lot of them.

Frenette added, the newly-landed ladies will not become pests in the city because they will die off during the winter.