My Little Ladybug is what comes to mind when I think of my 2 year old granddaughter who has developed quite a fondness for ladybugs - or as she excitedly calls them -"obbydugs". Ever since I learned of her love of these intriguing insects, I seem to come across ladybug-related items everywhere!
BOOKS...
BOOTS.....
BLANKETS....
EVEN BALLOONS!!!
I also enjoy coming across ladybugs in the garden because they love munching on aphids. There are many attractive plants you can plant in your garden to help attract these wonderful creatures. Ladybugs seem to be most attracted to specific types of plants, mainly with umbrella shaped flowers such as
Dill.....
Coreopsis.....
Cosmos (especially the white variety)....
and Yarrow, to name a few.
In closing, I can't help but leave you with a few interesting ladybug facts I recently 'dug' up:
*Each ladybug can eat up to 50 aphids a day, and as many as 5,000 in its lifetime
and speaking of eating......
* Years ago, doctors would mash ladybugs and put them in your mouth to cure a toothache (ewww gross!!)
* Ladybugs are the official state insect of Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Ohio and Tennessee
(I didn't know states actually had official state insects - I'm thinking ours in Illinois is the Japanese beetle; I hate those little suckers!)
* You can fit 80,000 ladybugs into a gallon jug (somebody had way too much time on their hands to figure this one out!)
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7 comments:
Years ago Our town used to buy lady bugs and volunteer kids would put them out. You'd see little straw patches at the base of the parkway trees all around town. My daughter volunteered when she was about 12 or so she volunteered. They dropped off two bags about the size of a big bag of potatoes, stuffed with straw and lady bugs. I walked our neighborhood with her while she put them out. Even as cute as lady bugs are, when 20 or so are tickly climbing up your arm, its CREEPY!
You forgot "The ladybug picnic" song from Sesame Street!
I love ladybugs, too. Last year I had lots of fun observing and taking photos of oodles of ladybug larvae in my garden across the street for several weeks. I was tickled that a number of them stayed in the garden after turning into ladybugs. I hope they do as well next year. You found some cute ladybug items! Thanks for the interesting tidbits.
Jude -
I love that you named the flowers!! Thank you my wonderful green thumbed friend!!
into the yard you send
Love, love, love your header! Your flowers are so pretty. Like your dog, too. Border collie?
Thanks for visiting my blog. You asked about the raised beds. We started out with 4 - had them for several years. Last year we added 2 more. I want to add 2 more this year, since I plan to raise 9 tomato varieties, brussels sprouts, spinach, kohlrabi, radishes and peas. We filled up the raised beds with topsoil and compost mixture...probably should have added some sphagnum peat moss or maybe sand to improve the texture as our soil is clay. Gardening is such fun and I can't wait to get out there!
What a joy to have a granddaughter! I remember seeing lots of blog friends with children or grandchildren dressed as ladybugs for Halloween. Cute items you have pictured and I'll think of you every time I see ladybugs now!
You should take a look at the Lost Ladybug Project.
http://www.lostladybug.org/
It's being run by Cornell University, and hopes to use "citizen scientists" to track the populations of ladybugs in America.
Lisa and Robb.....welcome and thank you for visiting my blog! What a great link you recommended...thank you for the information!
Judy
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