Home to a ladybug
 Q: Do ladybugs come from a nest? -- Michael J Darrigo, Staten Island, New York
A: No, ladybugs don't come from a nest. In the spring, an overwintering female ladybug lays her tiny, pale yellow eggs in
clusters of ten to 50 on the underside of plant leaves near colonies of aphids. In about three to five days the larvae hatch from
the eggs, looking like miniature alligators--gray or black, slender, and spiny with bright spots.
[© Scott Camazine, used with permission, Pennsylvania State University] Ladybird beetle, also called a ladybug
After hatching, they don't hang around under the leaf but immediately start killing and eating aphids. A single ladybug
consumes about 5,000 aphids in his or her lifetime: 400 aphids as a larva. In another two to three weeks, the larva
pupates on a leaf and transforms from a larva to an adult. The adult emerges in about a week to munch through another 4600
aphids.
In the summer, ladybugs live in shrubs, branches, and flowers. During autumn a few to several hundred ladybugs all crawl to the same place to hibernate--a
base of a tree, along a fence row, under a fallen tree, or under a rock. They crawl under leaves that protect them from the winter cold.
By the way, the name, ladybug, comes from the Middle Ages when churchmen dedicated the beetle to the Virgin Mary and said, "beetle of Our Lady." Back
in the old days, farmers burned hop vines in England after the harvest to clear the fields. The fires also killed many ladybird beetles. The nursery rhyme
(Ladybug ladybug, fly away home...) tells the story.
(Answered by April Holladay, science correspondent, November 14, 2001)
Further Surfing:
U of Kentucky: Ladybugs
Ohio State U: Fact sheet on ladybugs
Pennsylvania State U: Beetles
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