Upon receiving the cards, store them in a cool place (50 - 60° F.) until you are ready to begin preparing them for release. On the side with the eggs, the card looks like sandpaper. The brown material is food for the lacewing larvae when they hatch; it consists of moth eggs which have been frozen to kill them, but which still have their nutritional value, and moth parts which were not removed in the cleaning process. The lacewing eggs are scattered in the food material.
To prepare them, spread out a piece of newspaper on a table and have a pair of scissors for each person who will be cutting the cards into squares. Hold the card over the newspaper, egg side down, and cut along all the perforations. This will divide the ‘card’ into ‘squares’ and give you 30 or 50 squares, depending on the type of card you ordered. Place the cut squares into a bag or small box for the applicators to take into the orchard. Place the material that falls onto the newspaper in the crotch of one or more trees.
To release them, walk along the rows in the grove stapling one square on every tree. It’s important to place the staple so that the stapler doesn’t crush the eggs. Offset the staple on the square, as shown in the diagram, to minimize any damage. It is best to place the square on the underside of a leaf , egg side down, on the southern side of the tree. Since the pest likes the new flush and flowers or young fruit, placing the square on leaves on a branch which has these is best. The young lacewing will get a meal from the square upon hatching and can go quite a distance to find their next meal, so if you can’t get the square right by the flush or new fruit, the hatchlings will be able to spread through the tree on their own.
Materials list:
Newspaper
Scissors - one pair per preparer
Staplers - one per applicator
Staples
Bags or boxes to put squares in for applicators