The ladybug lifecycle


 
You never know when an unexpected discovery is going to take you on a Science/Nature learning experience!  Last year a garden "disaster" turned into a fantastic learning experience on the cabbage butterfly.

This morning I went out to take photos of the garden and I spotted these funny little creatures on our Stanley Prune Plum.

You see "Stanley" had a very bad case of aphids this Spring.  I basically had no choice but to clip off the affected branches and leaves and smoosh the little critters before they killed the small tree.  A few ladybugs eventually arrived to try help me out and I think they were able to take care of any aphids that I missed so Stanley is doing fine now.  What I didn't know was that they laid some eggs on Stanley and now we are seeing their lifecycle stages up close like we did with butterflies last year.  FUN FUN FUN!

I immediately found a chart of the ladybug lifecycle for the kids to see what stages our little larva and pupas are at.  I haven't noticed any yellow eggs or adults so we're kind of in the middle of the cycle.

I love ladybugs and collect many kinds of ladybug items so this is really fun for me.  Have you discovered any up close Science/Nature learning experiences lately?

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1 comment:

  1. Sara Hansen27 March 2017 at 21:52

    I am so glad you posted this. Most everyone knows what ladybugs look like in the end, but not before they develop. My dad saw ladybug larvae, thought they were pests and squished them. To this day he feels so badly.

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