Ladybugs are so cute! Can you guess which insect is the ladybug's baby in the photo?
Drum roll if you chose the long dragon-like creature.
Ladybugs glue eggs that look like rafts of white jellybeans on the undersides of leaves between now and August.
After a week or so, the jellybeans hatch. The larva have the reverse colouring of the adult, usually black with red or orange spots. The spots can look like a stripe along the body segments. Like all babies growing into teenagers, they eat constantly. Luckily, they are insectivores, eating aphids and other insects that eat our plants.
After 10 days or so of eating, they attach to a plant stem of leaf bottom to form a chrysalis. The larva morphs into the cute ladybug inside the chrysalis over a few days’ time. Truly an ugly duckling becoming a swan! If you have these fierce-looking kids in your garden, treasure this gift from nature.
Editor’s note: This is a weekly column presented by the South Delta Garden Club and hosted online every Tuesday on the Optimist website.
