Home

Navigation

Good Guys in the Garden: Ladybugs


 

Ladybug Not all ladybugs
are ladies.
There are boy 
adybugs and
girl ladybugs. 

 

TO LEARN ABOUT THE
LADYBUG LIFECYCLE,
CLICK HERE.

 

Ladybug

a.k.a
Ladybird beetles


Ladybugs can eat huge numbers of pesky insects (especially tiny little aphids!) . A single ladybug can eat as many as 5,000 aphids in a lifetime.


L. Patricia Kite writes in her book "Ladybug Facts and Lore" that hundreds of years ago, farmers were grateful that these tiny insects protected their grapevines, so they called it "our lady's beetle," believing it had been sent from heaven.

 

Ladybug

 

MAKE A LADYBUG MASK.
CLICK HERE

 

Ladybug Lifecycle


Females lay their eggs in yellow clusters under a leaf or stem often near a colony of aphids (tiny garden pests that damage many plants.) Within a week, the eggs hatch into alligator-shaped larvae that start gobbling up the aphids, tiny worms and a variety of insect eggs that gardeners are happy to get rid of!

Ladybugs have a life cycle that is similar to the butterfly.  They go through a complete metamorphosis during their 8-week life.


LADYBUG FACTS

  • A female ladybug will lay more than 1000 eggs in her lifetime but they are so small you can hardly see them.

  • Ladybugs chew from side to side and not up and down like people do.

  • A gallon jar will hold from 72,000 to 80,000.

  • The lady bug uses its front legs to clean it’s head and it’s antennae.

  • The spots on a ladybug fade as the ladybug gets older.

  • Not all lady bugs are female.

 

 

 

Share/Save

Help kids to grow strong.
Donate to

For more information, click here.

Kids Growing Strong
is a project of
California Garden Clubs, Inc.