A lot of times when we start talking with kids about bugs, we automatically default to caterpillars and butterflies. When I’m giving tours to school-age children through our garden and we stop to look at plants that have holes in the leaves, their first guess for what ate them is a caterpillar. Of course that is often right, but they don’t always think about all the other kinds of insects that might be out there.
If you are looking for some insects to show your kids outdoors right now, it is still too early for lots of caterpillars and butterflies to be out and going through metamorphosis. However, if you have some lush, green growing plants in your yard right now, you might look them over for signs of aphids and ladybugs!
We happened to notice last week that our roses don’t just have a few aphids, but they are COATED with aphids! Each one of those oval greenish while bumps on the stem is a single aphid. You probably won’t find this many aphids on a plant most of the time, but you might!
Another sign of aphids is these white flecks on the leaves of your plants. The white flecks are actually the molted skins of the aphids, so when you’ve got a bunch of them, you’ll see these on the leaves. Sometimes they are easier to spot than the aphids themselves, since white on green generally stands out better than green on green!
So why did we change from a discussion of ladybugs to a discussion of aphids? The reason is that while butterfly caterpillars eat plants, ladybugs eat aphids! Those cute little ladybugs are carnivores! So if you find a bunch of aphids in your yard, there’s a good chance you’ll find ladybugs too. Usually you’ll find not just the adult ladybugs, but the whole life cycle!
The first life cycle you are likely to see is the larval stage. These ladybug larva are mostly black with for orange spots on their backs. With the long tails and the bumpy backs, they can almost look like tiny crocodiles. They look much more harmful to the plants than the aphids, but they are really eating the aphids!
As these larvae grow, they have to shed their skins just like the aphids do. I found several of these moltings on the rose bushes.
When the larvae are well-fed and ready, they will pupate, or turn into ladybug pupa. You can tell a little easier now that they are ladybugs (although if you are familiar with Colorado Potato Beetles, they look a lot like that too!). At this stage they usually find a likely looking leaf and attach themselves to it. They will hang out on that leaf for several days while undergoing metamorphosis (just like butterflies)!
In a few days, there will be lots of adult ladybugs roaming around, feeding on aphids, and laying eggs for the next generation. Last week we had lots of larvae around, this week there are lots of pupae (and a lot fewer aphids). Next week I bet we’ll see a lot more of the adults!
Although nothing is as exciting as exploring the real, live world of insect-eat-insect, there are lots of art & craft projects about ladybugs that you can find from doing a quick internet search if you want to reinforce the concept with your kids again.
There’s A LOT going on Saturday May 19. Before or after you go to OK Kids Day at the Great Plain Nature Center & Watson Park (see post from May 16), swing by Botanica for the Teddy Bear Picnic.
