Ladybugs

Ladybugs are roundish and polka-dotted, which seems—somehow—cute.   They waddle about like wind-up toys on tiny legs and are decorated with flamboyant colors.

Even the name strikes a sweet chord: Ladybug.

As point of fact, their coloring is fashioned to make them unappealing to larger predators.  And ladybugs (ladybirds for those of you in London) are voracious predators themselves.  An adult ladybug might eat as many as fifty aphids in a single day.  A single ladybug might eat 5000 aphids during the course of a lifetime.

Ladybugs are among a gardener’s best friends.  They are a natural defense against aphids (and other pests) that might devastate garden plants.  In fact, you can purchase ladybugs for pest control and release them in your garden.

Last Wednesday, that girl and I drove to Valley Farms, a local nursery, to purchase a few plants for the planters near our back deck.  We found the nursery closed.  Posted is photograph expressing the reason for the nursery being closed.

Good stuff, that.

--Mitchell Hegman