Ways to Help Ladybugs

Have you ever seen a ladybug crawling up a blade of grass? You may have thought it delightful. Not only are ladybugs enchanting to watch, they play a major part in natural pest control. Here is how you can help them:

You can participate in SciStarter project Lost Ladybug Project(http://www.scistarter.com/project/50-The%20Lost%20Ladybug%20Project). This project asks you to photograph ladybugs and record all data in detail about your findings. A type of ladybug that was once common is now disappearing, and scientists need your help finding what has happened to it.

Of course, you can also not use pesticides. Ladybugs are actually good for your garden! How? Ladybugs eat aphids, small insects that suck out the juices of plants. Instead of getting rid of aphids by chemicals, why don't you just release some ladybugs on your plants?

If you see a ladybug, chances are it has an almost totally white pronotum. One time just recently, this was not so. What has happened? It is not a mere change of looks. The ladybugs with the white pronotum are a different, and rather unwanted species. These ones were imported from Asia and took over the population of the existing species. When you look at a ladybug, closely examine its pronotum.

Invasive ladybug

Native ladybug
Note the difference in the two ladybug's pronotums. Ladybugs can be yellow or red but it doesn't depend on which species they are. Both can be either yellow or red.

Ladybugs are not true bugs, them being in the order Coleoptera. True bugs are only members of the order Hemiptera. True bugs include stinkbugs, assassin bugs, and other tiny sorts. A hemipteran can be recognized by its piercing mouthparts( do not experiment with this; I was once bitten by an assassin bug). Ladybugs are beetles, and are therefore in the order Coleoptera, which contains all the numerous beetle species on Earth. Beetles are one of the most easily identifiable insect due to their hard wings, known as elytra. These wings can protect against predators and rain, but they do have a downside. Takeoff is very difficult when toting around heavy armor. This means that beetles have a rather ungainly flight, and need to jump off of whatever surface they are taking off from. The  wings are under the elytra.
 

There is one particular advantage of elytra that applies only to ladybugs. What is that? It defends against ants. Why do they need to defend against ants? Ladybugs eat aphids, and ants protect the aphids from predators. Ants do so because aphids give them secretions of honeydew, excess sugar from plant juices. Ants relish this, and defend the aphids. The elytra come into play because they are smooth and curved. Ants' small mandibles have a hard time latching on to this. Therefore, the ladybug often earns the victory.

Ants trying to drive off ladybug

Aphids