6 Interesting Facts About Ladybugs

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6 Interesting Facts About Ladybugs

If someone had to pick a favorite insect, there’s a good chance that it would be a ladybug. These unique creatures are colorful and have unique markings that almost always tend to generate a smile. You can’t ignore the fact that they also love to eat aphids, which are one of the worst garden pests that can be found in the backyard. Here are some interesting facts about these lovable creatures to enjoy.

1. They Come In Different Colors

Although the typical ladybug is going to be red and have some black spots on it, they actually come in a lot of different colors. You can find orange ones, black ones that have red spots, and even pink ones. There are actually over 5,000 different kinds of ladybugs that can be found in the world today, which isn’t bad for an animal that is technically a beetle.

2. Some Friendly Cousins

Ladybugs are in some friendly company when it comes to the insect world. Fireflies are also part of the same family. On the other side of the equation, so are June bugs, which aren’t so popular. They can be as small as 1 millimeter in size, but some ladybugs can grow to be 10 times bigger than that. If you’ve got an aphid problem, it’s the bigger ones that you want in your yard because they can eat a lot more of them.

3. What Do the Spots Mean?

Many people believe that the spots on a ladybug indicate its age, but this isn’t actually true. Ladybugs have spots like people have fingerprints. Every spot pattern on a ladybug is unique, even if it looks similar to other ladybugs in your yard.

4. They’re Like Bears

Ladybugs will leave at the end of the growing season, when the weather turns colder, but unlike other insects, they don’t just wander off to die. Ladybugs actually begin to hibernate when the weather turns cold and they’ll huddle together in order to find shelter that provides protections from the elements. It isn’t uncommon to find swarms of ladybugs that have more than one million of them together in a house, a tree, or anywhere else the cold winds won’t blow.

5. They Taste Yucky

For the most part, there aren’t any animals that will try to eat a ladybug… except other ladybugs. The colors of the ladybug tend to keep most of the usual predators away from the animal. For those that do try to taste a ladybug for the first time, a sticky, yellow substance that tastes terrible can be secreted from the legs of the ladybug to drive attackers away.

6. It Takes a Month to Grow Up

Ladybugs actually mature in four different stages. It begins with the egg from where they hatch. Then they become a larva and a pupa before becoming an adult. This can take about 4 weeks in total to happen. Some ladybugs only live to be about 3 months old on their own, which means some of them spend a third of their life being kids. Sounds like fun!

Ladybugs are fun creatures that help to keep plants safe and foods growing. They are an essential component of the outdoor environment because they control the aphids and that’s something we can all love.