Its amazing how children love these beautiful black spotted red insects known as ladybugs (Coccinellidae). For some reason we want to pick up these cute insects. Now the interesting thing is that my children or I have never wanted to pick up a beetle. And I mean never. They aren’t cute and they look like they could bite you. But did you know that a ladybug is a beetle ? Yes that’s right… a red beetle with black spots.
Keeping a ladybug as a pet:
It is easy to have a ladybug as your pet. All you need is a jar (make holes on the top of the jar), sticks, dirt, wet paper towel, and moist raisins. Moisten the paper towel once a day by taking it out of the jar and getting it wet. You can change raisins once a week. One raisin should be plenty. Just don’t forget to get the raisin wet.
What you need to make a ladybug life cycle….
*felt: white, yellow, red, and black
*foam balls (cut them in half)
*pipe cleaners (black)
*scissors
*black craft wire
*small felt balls (yellow color)
*hot gun and glue
To make the eggs. Cut the foam ball in half. Glue yellow felt balls to the foam. A ladybug lays about 10 to 15 eggs. Usually on a leaf.
A larvae looks nothing like a ladybug. They do bite so be careful with them. They eat mites, plant pests, and insect eggs. It takes a larvae 21 days until it turns into a ladybug.
The larvae holds on to something (leafs or walls) and then starts to crawl up into a ball and they look like they are drying up.
When the ladybug emerges from its pupa it comes out yellow. The yellow ladybug has almost no black spots at first. But within minutes to hours spots appear and the lady bug turns orange to red in color. Try not to hold the yellow ladybug because they are extremely fragile and you could hurt their wings.
Yacon Root
Amazing Blog. Very much enjoyed reading.