One of the gardener’s favorite insects is the ladybug. With their cute red and black spotted bodies, they definitely lack the “yuck” factor, and they are voracious predators of the aphid. Ladybug adults eat plenty of sap-sucking aphids, but their larvae are the champs in biological pest control. Each black, alligator shaped larva is actually a bit larger than the adult, and can eat up to 400 aphids in the three weeks before it pupates.

Nearly all cultures consider ladybugs to be an omen of good luck. In the 19th century, some doctors used ladybugs as a measles cure, and some suggested filling tooth cavities with mashed ladybugs for pain relief. Have you ever wondered about the children’s rhyme that goes, “Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home, your house is on fire and your children will roam, except little Nan, who sits in a pan, weaving gold laces as fast as she can”? In medieval England, farmers would burn the hop vines after the harvest, and ladybugs that fed on the plentiful hops aphids had to escape the flames. The mobile larvae were also able to escape, but the yellow pupae remained fastened to the plants.

There are actually over a dozen species of ladybugs here in northeast Ohio. This time of year, the most noticeable ladybug is the non-native multicolored Asian lady beetle (Harmonia axyridis), often called the Halloween lady beetle because of its varying shades of orange, and its conspicuous presence in October. Because our native ladybugs are not as fond of tree-damaging insects, almost 2000 multicolored Asian lady beetles were released in Cuyahoga and Lake Counties during June 1979 and July 1980. The USDA stopped releasing them because it appeared they were not surviving in our climate. In 1993, they mysteriously exploded in population. They are still excellent predators of plant-damaging insects, but their tendency to nip (without breaking the skin) and to invade homes in search of winter shelter has earned them a less-than-favored status. If they turn up in your house, don’t smash them as they can stain and will release a foul odor. It is best to vacuum them up with an old stocking in the vacuum hose to catch them before they get ground up in the vacuum fan.

Mrs. Nutkin Update

Mrs. Nutkin (as mentioned in the Summer issue) soon had to move her six babies out of the small five-inch-square birdhouse. It only took her a day to move them, but we could not tell where she set up the new homestead. About a week later, Mrs. Nutkin stopped making her daily visits to my garden, and her offspring never appeared. We fear that she was caught by a Cooper’s hawk or screech owl in the neighborhood, and her young did not survive. Such is the circle of life.