Lady Beetles

It's no secret to anyone who knows me, that I love ladybugs. In fact, I even have a blurry, 15 yr. old tattoo of one on my back.

However, I never knew about how a ladybug came to be. I just assumed that they hatched from a little egg, looking like their cute little selves.

I was wrong.

The Bozos and I are raising a handful of ladybug larve in our kitchen right now. It has been very interesting learning about their life cycle.
You can see in the front of their little habitat above, that there is a little black alligator looking larvae walking around. They are freaky looking. And if I was ever to find one crawling around, I would have never known that it was a Lady Bug waiting to be.

Hopefully, within the next few days they will begin to pupate. And then emerge as adult ladybugs. At that point, we will release them in our garden.

We raised Painted Lady Butterflies a few seasons ago.
And this morning while watering the garden, I untangled a tiny Mantis nymph from a spiderweb & set her free.
She is our state bug, after all.

So, next up Praying Mantis...