Ladybugs

Ladybugs

Click the flower to report where you most recently saw a ladybug.

******Note: This page contains many glossary links to help you understand the information on the page!

Ladybugs are beetles.

They have two hard shells or wing cases called elytra. Those shells are often red with black spots.

Ladybugs fly using their transparent hind wings which lay protected under the elytra. When ladybugs want to fly, they open their wing cases and use their hind wings. Ladybugs can fly up to 100 miles to find food or a sheltered place to spend the winter.

Ladybugs, like all insects, have six legs for walking, climbing, and grooming themselves. At the end of each leg is a claw that helps the ladybug grip leaves and stems.

Ladybugs have two antennae, which they use for touching and smelling.

In North America, there are about 350 kinds of ladybugs. The five most common types are:

The Two-Spotted Ladybug

The Convergent Ladybug

The Nine-Spotted Ladybug

The Spotless Ladybug

The Ashy Gray Ladybug (This kind is not red.)

Ladybugs have strong jaws that help them eat their favorite foods. Their favorite foods are two other kinds of insects, aphids and scale insects. Aphids attack many kinds of plants (roses and wheat, for example). Scale insects attack the trees in apple and orange orchards. Ladybugs keep those insects from harming many plants. An adult female Convergent Lady Beetle may eat up to 75 aphids a day. The smaller male may eat up to 40. One larva may eat from 350 to 400 aphids during development to the pupal stage. An adult will eat about 300 medium-size aphids before it lays eggs. Between three and ten aphids are eaten for each egg the beetle lays. A single adult may eat more than 5,000 aphids in its lifetime.

Ladybugs, aphids, and ants have an interesting relationship. When aphids attack a plant, they feed by drinking the plant sap. They take the nutrients from the sap and excrete the leftover fluid. The excreted fluid is called honeydew. The honeydew falls on the plant below the aphids. Butterflies, bees, and ants eat the honeydew. Some kinds of ants like honeydew so much that they stay near aphids to get it. Because the aphids provide the ants with a food source, the ants protect the aphids from ladybugs and other insects.

Ladybugs taste bad to predators. If a bird eats a ladybug, it will probably not eat another one. The ladybug's coloring will remind the bird of the bad tasting insect. Also, lady beetles may produce a bad smelling odor that comes from fluid in the joints of their legs. That may help to protect them.

The life cyle of a ladybug is interesting.

Eggs

Larva

Pupa

A female ladybug may lay from 10 to 100 tiny yellow eggs on the underside of a leaf where the eggs stay hidden.

After about five days, the eggs turn white. That's when a ladybug larva crawls out from the egg. The larva is about the size of a pinhead. It has six legs and a tiny sucker at the end of its body. It eats its egg case, and then looks for aphids to eat.

The larva slowly turns black as it grows and eats about 30 aphids a day. The larva molts or sheds its skin at least three times during its growth. It must shed its skin because the skin will not stretch to fit its growing larval body. After molting, the new soft skin is gray with patches of orange.

The larva stops eating when it is ready to molt for the last time. It finds a leaf and glues itself to the underside of the leaf where it is hidden from enemies. Here the larva sheds its skin for the last time and becomes a pupa. The new skin dries out and becomes a hard shell or case that protects the pupa.

Inside the case of the pupa, many changes are taking place. Its body gets shorter and arches. Its skin thickens, and it sprouts wings. It is turning into a ladybug, but it is still hidden under the case. The changes take about five days, and then the ladybug pushes its way out of the case. The ladybug stays hidden until its wing cases and hind wings are dry and hard. At first it is a pale yellowish. Then slowly it turns orange and then red. Spots also begin to appear on the spotted ladybug while its wings are drying.

The whole process of changing from an egg into a ladybug takes about three weeks.

Ladybugs sometimes roll over and play dead if they are disturbed. Many predators will not eat an insect that doesn't move.

When the weather begins to turn cold, ladybugs look for shelter. During the winter, they rest quietly. The resting time is called diapause. Sometimes ladybugs huddle together under rocks, leaves, or tree bark during diapause. Adult Convergent Lady Beetles may spend the winter in protected hiding places such as logs, buiIdings, and ground covering vegetation, where many hundreds of them cluster together. Some may also find an opening in a house and rest there during the winter. In early spring, they begin looking for food again and soon females will once again lay eggs.

The ladybug is mainly a ground bug because it isn't the best flyer. It can only go 15 miles per hour.

Some farmers and gardeners buy ladybugs and set them free on their farms or in their gardens. They hope the ladybugs will stay and eat the aphids and scale insects.

Ladybugs have been the source of many superstitions around the world for hundreds of years.

An ancient Norse belief says that the ladybug first came to earth by lightning and was connected in some way to the goddess of love and beauty.

English farmers believe ladybugs mean that farmers will have a good harvest.

People in northern Germany believed that by counting spots on the backs of ladybugs, they could tell about their harvest. Fewer than seven ladybugs meant a big harvest.

If the spots on the wing-cover of the ladybug are more than seven, it's a sign of famine.

In French vineyards, ladybugs signal good weather.

In Austria, people asked ladybugs for good weather.

If a ladybug lands on you, then flies away there will be good weather on Sunday.

Swedes believe that if a ladybug is walking on a girl's hand, it is measuring her hand for wedding gloves and she will be married soon.

Similarly, people in Central Europe believed that if a girl caught a ladybug and it crawled across her hand, she would be married within a year.

If a ladybug lands on you, watch in which direction it flies away because it is from that direction your true love will come.

In Burgundy, if a ladybug lands on a woman, she can count the dots and tell how many babies she will have.

English country folk believe that the number of spots on a ladybug are important, because if you count the spots on a ladybug which has landed on you, each spot stands for a happy month to come.

Canadians believe that if they find ladybugs wintering in their garage, they will have good luck. If you place a ladybug on your hand and make a wish, the direction in which it flies away shows from which direction the luck will come.

Many people believe that a ladybug brings good luck if it lands on you. However, for the good luck to happen, you must not brush the ladybug off, but rather let it fly away on its own.

Many people also believe that killing a ladybug brings bad luck.

If a ladybug lands on you on a Sunday and stays long enough for you to count to twenty-two, you will have good luck.

Another belief is that when a ladybug lands on you when you are sick, it will take the sickness away with it when it flies away.

Some people believe ladybugs understand human languages.

Ladybug Observations

Ladybug observations are listed beginning with the most recent.

****Boys and girls, ask your teacher or parent if you may print out Tunia's Maps. You may use the maps to mark the locations listed below where ladybugs were observed.

June 1, 2004: This observation comes from two observers at the National Institutes of Health, Cartilage Biology and Orthopedics Branch, Bldg 13 Rm 3W17 in Bethesda, MD: I picked a flower for my friend and noticed a ladybug pupa attached to the underside of one of its leaves. At the time, we were not sure what kind of bug it was, but the flower stayed in water and the bug did not move. We checked on it daily, sure that it must be dying if not dead already. Just this morning it was drier than ever and we figured it was probably dead. Then, this afternoon, after about 5 days on our laboratory bench, attached to its leaf, I noticed a ladybug next its split pupal shell! She is still a pale orange but her shoulders are starting to darken. We hope to feed her with another plant in the lab on which a cluster of festering aphids dwells.

April 17, 2004: This observation comes from a 3rd grader at Ridgeview Elementary in Ashtabula, Ohio: It was light orange with 6 dots. It came in the house on my Dad's leg. He flipped it back outside.

December 21, 2003: This observation comes from a 4th grader at Evans Falls Elementary in Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania: I found a ladybug last night in my home in Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania. We have a lot of ladybugs but this one was different. It was black and it had two red spots, one on each wing. I looked in my Audubon book and I can't find out what kind it is. Can you help me? (Your ladybug sounds as if it is a lady beetle called the twice-stabbed ladybug, which stays mostly on tree trunks and branches.)

November 16, 2003: This observation comes from a 7th grader in the Eastern Lebanon County School District in Myerstown, Pennsylvania: I see a lot of ladybugs in my yard. I live in Newmanstown, Pennsylvania. They are usually red and black and have 7 spots. The ladybugs are usually sitting on a plant or flying around when I see them.

November 10, 2003: This observation comes from a 2nd grader at Bangert Elementary School in New Bern, North Carolina: A ladybug was crawling on my finger in the front yard. It had about 9 spots.

November 2, 2003: This observation comes from Louisville, Kentucky: In Jefferson County, we seem to have quite the infestation here.We have 23 in one light fixture. About 20 have appeared in the bathtub, several more throughout the house. They are dark-orange with about 12 spots and with black on their thorax. I believe they are called Asian Lady Beetles. They may be good for crops, but a real pain to have invade your house.

October 21, 2003: This observation comes from a 3rd grader in Scotch Plains, New Jersey: Today we had hundreds of ladybugs on our house. They were red with many black spots. They were flying around and crawling all over my house. Then we asked our neighbors and found out the ladybugs were on their homes too. They were on the sunny side of the houses.

October 21, 2003: This observation comes from a 3rd grader at Benfield Elementary in Severna Park, Maryland: There were many orange or very off color red ladybugs flying all around and landing on my house in Severna Park, Maryland.

October 19, 2003: This observation comes from a 6th grader at Antioch Middle School in Gladstone, Missouri in the Kansas City area: I can't believe its october 18^th, 2003 and I have over 2 dozen ladybugs crawling on the south side of my house. A few are stuck between the storm windows and can't get out. I didn't count the spots but they vary in color from the light orange to darker orange. I hear that if you have ladybugs in your house you are blessed. Also I heard that they will bring you luck.

October 16, 2003: This observation come from a 21-year-old woman who lives in Hagerstown, Maryland and goes to Villa Julie College in Stevenson, Maryland: My ladybug experiance happened in Michigan at my Grandmother's funeral. I am extremely close to my Grandmother and she passed away two Sundays ago. When I was at the cemetary for her funeral, ladybugs swarmed all over me and my boyfriend and the car we were in. Today, one week since that day, a grayish red ladybug who with 18 spots was in my living room crawling along the walls and the ceiling. This must be something good sent to me from my beloved Grandmother.

October 11, 2003: This observation comes from a 9th grader at Rowan County High School in Morehead, Kentucky: I saw a ladybug in Morehead, Kentucky. It was red with 18 spots and it was sitting in the wall.

October 10, 2003: This observation is from a 4th grader from Room 15 at Monument Elementary School in Quincy, Washington: I saw a ladybug in Quincy. It was bright red. It had ten spots. It was sitting on a flower.

October 9, 2003: Mrs. Meckes 2nd grade class at Pleasant Valley Elementary School in Kunkletown, Pennsylvania sent this observation in: There are hundreds of them and they are orange. But some of them are more red. They are flying all over the place in our back yard and landing on our white screened porch. There are also some funny looking bugs on the screens. They are bigger than the ladybugs but aren't eating them.

September 24, 2003: A visitor to Tunia's website who lives in Florida sent in this observation. I live in Palm Beach County, Florida. Last year my wife and I put in an Asian Garden. We have 3 large clumps of Golden Hawaiian Bamboo. They have grown tremendously since planting. Over the last 3 months, I have noticed more and more ladybugs covering the bamboo, eating scale. They are all black with one red spot on each wing. They are welcomed predators for my garden. With luck, they will have me scale-free within a few months. I am researching to find out what else the ladybugs will eat, and if they can cause harm to anything else in the garden.

July 22, 2003: This ladybug sighting came from Thorofare, New Jersey. My son saw two ladybugs on one fern. One was orange with black dots and the other was smaller and more yellow with black dots. This was on July 21.

May 25, 2003: This observation was sent in by a 3^rd grader from Room 3-302 at P.S. 166 in New York, NY. Most recently, I saw a ladybug in my school's reading garden. It is red with 6 black spots. It was walking in a planter when I saw it.

May 25, 2003: This observation was sent in by a 3 year old from Wrightwood, California who is not in school yet. We have had a ladybug explosion out here. It almost looks like it is raining ladybugs. We are finding them everywhere and have to dust off our clothes when we come in. We are on this website to try and find out why ladybugs have spots. We have seen two that did not have spots at all, so we are making this a learning experience.

May 17, 2003: This observation was sent in by a 6th grade student from Booker T. Washington Middle School in New York, New York. I saw a ladybug on Madeline Island, an island off the coast of Bayfield, Wisconsin. It was pink with about 8 spots. (Madeline Island is located in the Chequamegon Bay area of Lake Superior.)

April 13, 2003: This observation was sent in by a 5th grade student from Orangewood Elementary School in Fort Myers, Florida. In Sylva, North Carolina, I saw a red and black ladybug. It was eating.

March 18, 2003: This observation was sent in by students at West Valley Junior College in Saratoga, California. I found two diapause areas and know of at least 4 more. This is the third year I've observed them in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Some had no spots. Most had 9 spots, but sometimes seemed to have as many as eleven if you count the places where the wings split the spots.

September 27, 2002: This ladybug observation is from a first grader at Fred C. Underhill School in Hooksett, NH who made the observation at Flume Gorge in the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire: It was black with six red spots. It was crawling around on a picnic table.

September 11, 2002: This ladybug observation is from a sixth grader at Hastings Middle School in Upper Arlington, Ohio: Yesterday I saw an orange lasybug with 9 spots. It was on a white rose in a garden, Just when I got a good look at it, its hind wings spread and it flew away. I will never forget that ladybug.

August 24, 2002: This ladybug observation is from a second grade student at Jemison Elementary School in Jemison, Alabama: My mom found an orange ladybug in our house. She told me to take it outside and put it in the flowers.

August 16, 2002: This ladybug observation is from a junior at CMSU in Warrensburg, Missouri: I was outside late at night about 11PM talking to my brother. I saw the ladybug on the trunk of my car walking around. It had about 10 spots.

May 5, 2002: This ladybug observation is from a kindergarten student at Agassiz School in Cambridge, Massachusets: Today we found more than 100 ladybugs trapped inside our summer cottage in New Hampshire. We let most of them out, but caught 28 to take to school tomorrow for show and tell. When it's recess, I'll ask my teacher to go to the side park to see the ladybugs, and I'll open the door and they will fly out. When I let the ladybugs go, I'll make sure all of them come out.

April 19, 2002: This ladybug observation is from Mrs. Cafferty in Rhode Island: Tunia's garden has another ladybug visitor. It was on the same rosebush that the ladybug without spots was on yesterday. The ladybug I saw today had many spots. Today's visitor may have been a Convergent Lady Beetle.

April 18, 2002: This ladybug observation is from a second grader in Room 10 at Condit Elementary School, Claremont, California: I found a ladybug in the play yard at my school. It was crawling on the cement, so I picked him up so he wouldn't get squashed. He has seven spots.

April 18, 2002: This ladybug observation is from Mrs. Cafferty in Rhode Island: Today, I saw another ladybug in Tunia's garden. This one was red, but it didn't have any spots. It was on a rosebush. I think Tuni'as ladybug friends are doing a great job taking care of her garden!

April 14, 2002: This ladybug observation is from Mrs. Cafferty in Rhode Island: As I walked by one of the rosebushes in Tunia's garden, I saw a ladybug. Looking more closely, I saw that it was a Convergent Lady Beetle. I also saw why it was there. The rosebush has many aphids on it, so this ladybug was just doing what she does best!

April 14, 2002: This ladybug observation is from a second grader in Room 201, Reservoir Avenue School, Providence, RI. The ladybug was seen at Rhode Island College: The color is red and it had 22 spots.

March 17, 2002: A second grade student at Mannington Elementary School in Goose Creek, SC sent in this ladybug observation: I saw a red or sometimes orange ladybug. It had about 4 or 5 spots on each wing. The ladybug was just crawling up my arm.

March 17, 2002: A 6th grade student in Room 13 at Hathaway School in Oxnard, Carlifornia sent in this ladybug observation: I recently saw several red and orange ladybugs with many spots.

March 6, 2002: This report was e-mailed from Indiana: I live in Indiana. A red ladybug with 18 spots just fell onto my keyboard.

February 26, 2002: S.S. from Orange, California e-mailed this report: I work on the 20th floor in a high-rise building in Orange, California. At 3:45PM (PST) I saw a ladybug crawling outside on the window. I didn't really count the spots because I couldn't pick it up.

February 25, 2002: S.S. from Orange, California e-mailed this report: At 5:45PM (PST) I found a ladybug on my sleeve as I was driving home. I'm not sure what happened to it after it went out of the sunroof.

January 1, 2002: A student in Grade 3 at Macklin School in Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada sent in this ladybug observation: We saw a ladybug in our house. What is really strange about this is that we live in Northern Alberta, and it is very cold here. Last night it was minus 30 degrees celsius. I guess our ladybug has been living with us for awhile. Our ladybug has six spots and is just sitting on the windowsill of our living room window. We're just going to leave it there because it will freeze if we put it outside. We're hoping it's a lucky ladybug!

October 11, 2001: A homeschool student from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania e-mailed this report: I saw a ladybug with 19 spots. It is orangeish brownish and I found it on my door and they are swarming around our house. It was crawling on my door when I found it.

October 10, 2001: This ladybug observation is from Pennsylvania: I go to Linton Middle School in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. I am in the town of Penn Hills. I am in 9th grade. I just saw a ladybug today...and it was in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania in my mom's bedroom. There are like 200 of them covering the ceiling and they are all around the walls and windows.

April 9, 2001: This ladybug observation is from Mrs. Cafferty in Rhode Island: Today while strolling through Tunia's garden, a ladybug landed on me. I was surprised because the weather has been very changeable - some days quite cold and an occasional day that is nice and warm. I didn't expect to see a ladybug out of her winter hiding spot yet. However, this ladybug stayed with me for a minute or so, and then she flew off in a southerly direction. She was orange-red in color and had a round body. She had several black spots, but I was not able to count them before she flew away. My guess is that she was a Convergent Lady Beetle. Their usual season in Rhode Island is from May to October. Convergent Lady Beetles have 13 spots and usually live in gardens, meadows, and woods.

October 25, 2000: This ladybug observation was made by two students in Grade Two, Room 201 at Reservoir Avenue School in Providence, Rhode Island: We saw an orange ladybug with four spots. It was crawling on our hands at recess.

October 13, 2000: This ladybug observation came from Robert: I finished school a long time ago. I live in Pennsylvania, very close to the Pocano Mountains. I have never seen so many different kinds of ladybugs. They are all over the siding of my house, not that I mind them because I don't. I just wanted to know if there is some kind of myth about ladybugs and the prediction of what kind of winter we will have. I thought I had heard something at one time or another, but I was not sure. Thank you. (Tunia's friends could not find any myths or superstitions connecting ladybugs with predicting winter weather. It could be that the ladybugs felt the cooler weather arriving and found the siding on the house warm and comfortable. Maybe the sun had been shining on the siding and warmed it up. Since it is fall, ladybugs will be entering diapause and will be looking for places to spend the winter. If they can find a way in, they may even come into the house.) Click here to find some information about another insect thought to predict winter weather.

September 17, 2000: A third grade student from Room 102 at Wexford Elementary School in Wexford, Pennsylvania e-mailed this ladybug location report: " We have thousands of ladybugs hibernating in a box inside the teachers' lounge refrigerator. We plan on testing ladybugs' sense of smell, preference to light and dark, taste preference, and body movements. We will check your site on-line during computer class. We are going to write a fact book and poem about them. Our theme this year is Bugs." (Wouldn't Tunia and her friends love to hear the results? Maybe the third graders will e-mail what they found out!)

March 25, 2000: At the Fremont School in Colorado Springs, Colorado, a fifth grade student e-mailed this sighting of a ladybug: "I saw the ladybug in Colorado Springs, CO. It was orangey red and was a 6 or 7 spotted ladybug depending on how you count it. It was eating an aphid."

March 25, 2000: This ladybug observation was made by a student in Grade Two, Division 10 at James Hill Elementary in Langley, British Columbia: "We didn't count the spots on the Ladybug this morning. We found it in my brother's bedroom on his water glass."

March, 2000:Many students in Mrs. Koroll's class at James Hill School, B.C., Canada spotted and identified several different kinds of ladybugs over the past few months. The students brought the ladybugs to school so that their classmates could see them. Sometimes the children found the ladybugs in a group as they looked for a place where they could spend the winter during diapause. The children in Mrs. Koroll's class spotted the following kinds of ladybugs in Langley: Southern Lady Beetle, Nine-Spotted Lady Beetle, Two-Spotted Lady Beetle, Fourteen-Spotted Lady Beetle, Twice-Stabbed Lady Beetle, Spotted Lady Beetle, and Southern Lady Beetle.

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