Lady Bugs (Audubon Kids)

By Lauren Parmelee, Senior Director of Education

Ladybugs or lady beetles are a favorite insect of kids and gardeners alike. Their red or orange carapace with black dots is easy to recognize and they do not bite or sting, so it is easy to hold one in your hand and look at it closely.

Ladybugs love to eat aphids, small insects that feed on the sap of plants using slender needle-like mouth parts. An infestation of aphids can stunt the growth of plants in gardens and in large numbers, aphids can damage farm crops. It is no wonder people like to have lady bugs in their gardens, these beetles can eat 5,000 aphids in a lifetime!

A lady bug will lay up to 1,000 eggs under a plant leaf that has an aphid colony, so when the larva hatch they are surrounded by food. As the larva grows it molts its exoskeleton and then enters a pupa stage before emerging as an adult.

There are about a dozen species of ladybugs in Rhode Island. Some are native, but others have been introduced from other countries. The cardinal lady bug, now found all over the state is originally from Australia.

The native convergent lady beetle is orange with up to thirteen black spots on its shell. The head is black with two white spots. They get their name from the fact they gather in large groups during cold weather to mate and to stay warm while they hibernate.

The introduced Asian ladybug also congregates in large numbers in the fall to look for warm places to spend the winter. Sometimes those warm places are peoples’ homes and that’s when this beneficial insect can become a pest.

Fun fact! The bright coloring of the ladybug, like the orange and black monarch butterfly, is a warning to predators.