I was excited to spot four or five ladybugs on my dill this morning. I'm not sure if that's good - because the ladybugs are feeding - or bad - because the ladybugs have something to feed on. Either way, I'm happy to see them. I have plenty of pests in my wild-leaning, limited pesticide gardens, so I'm surprised that I don't see the sweet bugs with red and black bodies more often.
Ladybugs eat aphids, those soft-bodied sucking insects that can wreak havoc on everything from ornamentals to herbs to even hardwood trees.
A single ladybug can devour 5,000 aphids during their adult life. That's efficient bug control!
Check out the cute video about a ladybug.
No wonder we don't spot ladybugs in our gardens anymore! With so much pesticides being used in rural areas, those lovely insects have decreased in great numbers. What a shame! Although we, city-dwellers, avoid using chemicals, large scale producers end up destroying nature's wonders.
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