These little red bugs are beloved because they are beneficial predators, cheerfully chomping on garden pests such as aphids. But ladybugs aren’t really bugs at all. Instead, ladybugs belong to the order Coleoptera, which includes all the beetles.
Here are some more fascinating facts about ladybugs.
Not All Ladybugs Are Black and Red
Ladybugs are most often red or yellow with black dots. However, every color of the rainbow is found in some species of ladybug generally in two contrasting colors. The most common being red and black or yellow and black, but some are as plain black and white, others are as exotic as dark blue and orange. There are 4,300 different species of ladybugs.
Ladybugs Live for About a Year
The ladybug lifecycle begins as a batch of bright-yellow eggs are laid by their mother on branches near food sources. They hatch as larvae in four to 10 days and then spend about three weeks feeding. This brief and eventful life, and the perceived friendly nature of ladybugs make them a popular science project for grade schools around the world.
Ladybugs Eat a Tremendous Number of Insects
Almost all ladybugs feed on soft-bodied insects and serve as beneficial predators of plant pests. Gardeners welcome ladybugs with open arms, knowing they will munch on the most prolific plant pests. Ladybugs love to eat scale insects, whiteflies, mites, and aphids. A hungry ladybug adult can devour 50 aphids per day, and estimates are that a ladybug can consume as many as 5,000 aphids over its lifetime.
We started our own “Ladybug Release” tradition over six years ago. My two grandsons, Ethan and Ehren look forward to this each summer, unfortunately, my granddaughter Audrey wants no part of the action, much to my dismay she “hates ladybugs”. I think she is afraid of them getting in her long hair, which is definitely a possibility. We release 3,000 ladybugs each year. This year I ordered my Ladybugs from NaturesGoodGuys. When I receive them, they are placed in the refrigerator to “chill out” until the day of their release. As soon as you take them out and they warm up they’re ready to go. It is best to release them at dusk after you have slightly misted the foliage. Ethan and Ehren distribute them throughout my garden. I also have a Ladybug house in the garden where they can go for protection. This is just one of the many ways that you can include children in your garden adventures. It’s a “Family Gardening Tradition” that will continue to bring us together.
Mindful Gardening
Losing yourself in the act of gardening is the perfect way to connect with your surroundings. Many of us have had a perfect day in the garden, the kind of day that we hope will never end. A day when there is a warm sweetness (or very hot in our case) in the air while you prune, weed and plant. It’s a kind of day that leaves you feeling calm, collected, and aware.
If you’ve ever had a day like this, there’s a good chance you’ve achieved, at least for a few moments, a mental state known as MINDFULNESS. In the last few years, mindfulness has had a great deal of attention. Simply put, mindfulness is about being more aware of what is happening both inside and outside of ourselves. Mindfulness stems from eastern Buddhist traditions and practices. In the west, it has been embraced and modified and is now considered a useful tool to help focus the mind.
“Becoming more aware of the present moment can help us enjoy the world around us more and understand ourselves better.”
You can practice mindfulness in every aspect of your life. How many times have you left your home, only to reach the end of the street and ask yourself “Did I put the garage door down?” So, you turn around and check. Sure enough…it is down. When I leave home, my mantra is “the garage door is down, don’t turn around”. By saying this and LISTENING to what I’ve said, I don’t turn around (at least not as often as I used too). How about eating? Are you a “grab a handful of peanuts person” or do you actually enjoy each one? Were they too salty, dry roasted or do you even know? Do you savor each bite or do you just eat to be eating? By practicing “mindful eating” you give you stomach time to enjoy what is being put in it. And it also gives it time to say “OK, I’m full now…STOP, but if you just gobble, gobble…you have probably eaten more than you really want too.
Mindfulness is also thinking before you speak. Remember the saying “you can’t put toothpaste back in the tube”, well, words are just the same. Once they come out, you cannot take them back. It’s a matter of being conscious of what you are doing, how you are doing it and aware of what you are doing. It takes practice, but it helps in slowing us down a little in the fast-paced lives we live. Stop and smell the roses!
For me, gardening is the perfect activity to truly become mindful. We gardeners know that on a good day, when all the plants around us are reaching toward the sky, when the soil in the vegetable beds runs richly through our hands, that we feel totally connected to the present moment. There is a calm in gardening which cannot be found anywhere else. I can think of no better task than gardening to become more mindful, for what gardener has not closed their eyes and bent down to inhale the gentle fragrance of a flower?
Gardening and mindfulness seem like a perfect match. There are so many aspects of modern life which people seem to disconnect from. Long office meeting to attend, committees to serve on, clubs to attend and way too much “technology time”. Due to the stressful and hectic nature of life, people often want to be somewhere else. It doesn’t need to be like this. If you want something that reconnects you to the world around you, which makes you more mindful of the present moment, than look no further than the green grass beneath your feet. You really won’t find a better meditation mat.
If you know of a “Spot of Beauty” let us know. Send a picture and address to bbuffa1@gmail.com.
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