Ladybugs

Ladybugs, or Ladybird, a small beetle. Members of most species, both as larvae and as adults, feed on garden pests such as aphids, scale insects, and mealybugs. Ladybugs live in temperate and warmer parts of the world. ladybugs share certain features. They have small, pea-shaped bodies and six short legs. Most ladybugs are less than 1/4 inch (6.35 millimeters) long. But ladybugs differ in their spots.

Most ladybugs have spots on their backs. The spots may be black, red, white, or yellow. Some kinds of ladybugs have 13 spots. Others have only 2 spots. The color of the body may be black, bright red, orange, or yellow. Many species hibernate in winter. Convergent ladybugs are raised commercially and sold to farmers and gardeners.

Female Ladybugs produce clusters of 20-50 yellow-orange oval-shaped eggs in the early spring — you can usually find them stuck to the undersides of leaves. The average female will lay anywhere from 300 to 1000 eggs during her lifetime. The eggs hatch primarily in March and April, depending on the temperature.

Ladybug Larvae are actually larger than their parents, and they look very much like miniature blue-black alligators! In fact, some well-meaning gardeners will actually exterminate them because they don’t recognize them as Ladybug offspring. The Larvae are ravenous and immediately begin gorging on aphids, mealybugs, scale insects, and other soft-bodied pests. One Larvae can consume as many as 400 aphids during the 3-week period before it enters the Pupae stage and turns into an adult.

Ladybugs are a bit clumsy, though efficient enough, fliers. Their transparent sheath-wings (hidden from view under the outer wing cases, until they take to the air) flutter at a rate of 85 beats per second. Their bright colors serve as a warning sign to birds and other potential predators that they DON’T TASTE GOOD. If attacked by a predator, Ladybugs ooze a yellow, foul-smelling liquid (actually their blood) from their leg joints, which is usually all it takes to convince their attacker not to continue snacking on them.

Ladybugs after consuming aphids all summer-long, the air starts to turn brisk, and the Ladybugs begin to seek shelter for the winter. They cluster together by the thousands (for warmth, it’s presumed) under dead leaves, inside hollow logs, and even high up in the eaves of our houses. For still unknown reasons, they tend to prefer light-colored structures with a prominent southern exposure. There they will remain – in hibernation – until the warmer temperatures return, indicating that Spring has come and the aphid population has been replenished. The Ladybugs will then devote themselves to several days of eating and frenzied mating, the females sometimes feeding and breeding at the same time! Our beautiful, brightly-colored beetles will die soon thereafter……but before they do, new clusters of yellow-orange eggs will be laid and the life cycle begins anew, much to the delight of farmers and Ladybug Lovers everywhere.

Prevention:ladybugs from getting in, make sure all cracks around windows, doors, clap boards, pipes, ect. are sealed up. Some extermination companies offer this service, sometimes called inclusion. This, too, is no small project, and may cost a small fortune, but it’s worth it. Especially if you don’t like ladybugs joining you for dinner.

If you ever have any bug related questions feel free to call us either at Beyond Pest Control. Once again, and I can’t stress this enough we are on call twenty four hours a day seven days a week to kill those bugs, we aren’t kidding whether you call us at 9 am or midnight we will be available to take your call and either get rid of the bug infestation, or answer any questions you may have concerning the bug issue. I can honestly guarantee that there will be someone to answer that call. We make it our business to make you bug free!

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Beyond Pest Control.

Our pest control specialists service all NYC boroughs, including Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx, Manhattan, Long Island (both Nassau & Suffolk counties), Staten Island and even both Westchester & Rockland counties.