Maria received a much requested batch of lady bugs for her birthday, thanks to some of our favorite little cousins (Hi, Charlee and Brett!). And since I'm certain Aunt Julie and crew have been dying to see all of our lady bug action, it's past time for sharing our adventures with our polka dotted beetle friends.
They arrived in the mail looking like anything but lady bugs. They were these creepy crawly little yellow and black bugs... which I apparently never got a decent picture of. We emptied them into their home (Lady Bug Land!) along with their food. Then we watched... and watched... and watched them some more!
Eventually they formed little pupas (kind of like a cocoon) and attached themselves all over the house. Between the poop they left all over and the little black pupas they turned into, it was a long waiting period... especially since it was happening on the dinner table!
But eventually they emerged! It was seriously so much fun watching these little creepy crawly yellow bugs emerge. At first, they didn't look anything like lady bugs. (Thanks to Maria's patient and watchful eye, we managed to see a couple s.l.o.w.l.y emerge from their pupa... She's a patient one, I tell ya.) They emerged yellow, like the little guy above, and you could just make out their spots underneath the surface. After a couple of hours or so their spots appear and they turned from yellow to pinkish to a dull red. Not quite the kind you usually see flying about the fields. Maybe they were a different variety? Maybe that's what happens in captivity?
Anyway, they became her little classroom, were given names like Netty and Nerd (of course, she could tell who was who), and even developed little personalities. Netty was rather shy and timid, taking a while to adjust to his new friends and class. Whereas Nerd jumped right it, excited to meet everyone. Some of them were pushy, some considerate. It was all quite amusing.
They arrived with a little instruction manual, letting us know that they needed to be released within a week of hatching. A couple of days before their set release, while Camilly was napping and Dada was still at school, Maria announced it was time to set the lady bugs free. She's a funny one when she makes up her mind to something.
We released them near our baby zinnia plants that were being eaten by bugs... hoping the little ladies would do their part to save our zinnias. They went super crazy when Ree removed the lid, scattering about at warp speed. She kept collecting them and letting them crawl all over her. Eventually I put the camera down and joined in the fun. At one point she had 5 of them crawling on her and was looking for a sixth; she is six, after all!
She saved two of them so Camilly could join in on the action. The poor little guys had to wait around for our original scheduled release date. Have I mentioned how much fun it all was?!
She went back to check on them for days afterward but we never did find them loitering around. I can't say that we were ever really still enough to have spotted them. I always marvel at the ability of kiddos to welcome something so whole heartedly... while still understanding that it will be released. I marvel at their ability to move on... their natural understanding of 'this is how it should be'.
And so our Lady Bug Land is washed and ready, placed next to our butterfly houses, awaiting another batch of lady bugs next year.
1 comment:
This is so sweet! I love it!
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