Attract Ladybirds To Your Garden With This Delightful Ladybird Tower...Click Image!

World Alive Ladybird Kit

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Retail Price: £14.99

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“Ladybird, ladybird” would be chanted by a small child when this pretty, little, inoffensive insect landed on their person. If the ladybird did not fly away of its own accord the child would gently blow it away chanting “Ladybird Ladybird fly away home”. This insect is commonly found every summer in the gardens of Britain - the most common colour is red with black spots, less common are the yellow variety. This nursery rhyme is purely situational and has no basis in history for its origins.

Ladybirds should be welcomed in any garden, indeed they are generally regarded with respect and affection by most who come across them. This is probably in part because as children we recognise them through rhymes and stories learned from nursery school onwards. As gardeners our high regard for these small creatures is not unfounded for they are one of our best deterrents against garden pests. Most ladybirds are carnivorous their particular favourite food  being greenfly. However they don’t stop there, they will also eat small caterpillars before they can cause real problems and they will take mealybugs, mites and even some scale insects. And just like bees they help pollinate plants as they move from flower to flower in there busy sort of way.

Little Monsters
Ladybird larvae have a spiky, segmented body with powerful jaws and a ferocious appetite for aphids no wonder that they are often referred to as ‘insect alligators’. Take care not to harm them. The more that survive then the better will be your natural defence against pests.

Life Cycle
Starting as a tiny, shiny, yellow egg, laid in a cluster on a leaf, the ladybird passes through several stages before reaching the adult beetle we are so familiar with. Each egg hatches to release a small, black, 6-legged larva which eats greedily and increases in size by shedding its skin three times in its lifetime. The full grown larva eventually attaches itself to the leaf and forms a pupa, from which the adult beetle emerges 1-2 weeks later. Ladybirds emerge from hibernation in late March/April, to feed and mate. Eggs are laid from late spring into summer. Beetles and larvae feed through the summer; the larvae pupate and produce a new generation of beetles during mid to late summer. These beetles feed and look for hibernation sites. Few of the older (1 year) beetles survive to hibernate a second winter - one year is the common life span of a ladybird. In times of danger, ladybugs are able to roll over and play dead. Their enemies don’t like to eat them because the joints in their bodies give off a fluid that tastes bad. Their bright colouring is said to warn birds of their awful taste.

How Many Spots
Of the 42 different species of ladybird in the UK the most common is the seven-spot ladybird. This bright red ladybird has seven spots and is thought to have inspired the name ladybird: “Lady” referring to the Virgin Mary (Our lady) who in early paintings is seen wearing a red cloak; the seven spots are symbolic of the seven joys and seven sorrows of Mary

Suicide Bomber Aphids
Ladybirds don’t have it all there own way, at least one family of aphids have a way to fight back. Cabbage aphids have an internal chemical defence system which enables them to disable attacking predators by setting off a mustard oil ‘bomb’, new research has revealed. This mustard oil kills, injures or repels the ladybird, which then saves the colony of aphids from attack, although the individual aphid involved usually dies in the process.

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