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The city of Caen in Normandy is posting 12 000 ladybird eggs to garden
centres around France, so that gardeners can buy them instead of chemical
pesticides. Ladybirds are ravenous eaters of greenflies and other plant pests.
Caen has been distributing the beetles to local gardeners since the late 1970s
(In Brief, 20 April 1991, p 19). The city council now hopes the rest of France
will take up the idea. It is sending the eggs by rapid post to more than 80
towns over the next two months because ladybird eggs cannot survive more than
two days in transit.