We have all grown up identifying and liking or at least tolerating lady bugs. Here are some cute and quick fun facts on ladybugs!
Many gardeners know that ladybugs are wonderfully beneficial in the garden and can eat incredible quantities of those BAD aphids. If you would like some ladybugs for your garden, order some up! But before you do, please take a minute to read this very thoughtful and scientifically informative essay by John Mertus. According to John, people have honored ladybugs as an age old tradition, and hence the very strange sounding title above!
In a broader perspective, ladybugs can be a major component in integrated agricultural pest control strategies. Here is an interesting piece from Texas describing the wonderful benefits of a ladybug invasion!
On the flip side, here's a real stinker about them from the home-owner's perspective! (Yes, I do have lots of them in MY house and yes, they DO stink!)
There is always a question of biodiversity within the context of introducing exotic species. The ladybugs may be a case in point, and a Canadian Wildlife Federation project is trying to monitor the ladybug populations by type (see link in list below). Wondering what kind YOU have? Look here!
Now, since I am a firm believer in the importance of positive insect identification and awareness of life cycles and other finer points of insect ways: Here are some drier links to finer points of ladybugdom:
Gardening lore is fascinating stuff! Here is a very peculiar picture of a necklace made from beetles. I'm not sure if I believe this or not, but you may see the Amazing Beetle Body Necklace for yourself! Can't you just imagine it made out of pretty little red ones? If there are thousands of them in your house right now, I'll bet you CAN get REAL CLOSE to imagining it!
And then of course there's the pizza principle: this Pizza Pie Chart shows you as fact just how many lady bugs there really could be in your attic if they have chosen YOUR house as a hibernation haven. I wonder if that's not where the devil's chicken reference came from -- but I really couldn't say for sure! (But I do know that heat rises!)
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