This is my first instructable so don't be hard on me. I'm going to tell you how to care for a ladybug. (It worked for me and my pet ladybug)
Remove these ads by
Signing UpStep 1: Finding a place
First your going to need to find a home for your ladybug.
Here's some ideas:
1-Ladybug Playground(you can buy it at the store)
2-A jar with holes in the top(I suggest a jelly jar)
3-Your own idea of a home
Here's some ideas:
1-Ladybug Playground(you can buy it at the store)
2-A jar with holes in the top(I suggest a jelly jar)
3-Your own idea of a home
Visit Our Store »
Go Pro Today »
Ladybugs, depending on how old they already are, should live longer than a few months. The native species have a life expectancy in the wild of about a year. The Asian ladybeetle, which is the one most commonly found in houses in the fall, has a life expectancy of 2-3 years in the wild.
Right now I've got 11 Asian Ladybeetles on my desk in a plastic container, munching together on a stack of chopped raisin. I know some people strongly dislike "invasive species" -- as if *we're* not an invasive species ourselves (except for those who live in the horn of Africa). The reality is that successful species have always "invaded" new territories. Some successful species, when expanding their range, are highly disruptive and deserve our every effort to control their expansion, Others are relatively benign. The Asian ladybeetle presents a "threat" largely to our housekeeping: otherwise it eats aphids with as much gusto as the natives, and deserves my help overwintering here in VT (it's too late for me to throw these guys back outside where they ought to be overwintering).
Since ladybug pheromones will attract other ladybugs, once you catch a few ladybugs in your house and give them winter housing, the rest will try to come to you, especially if you keep their winter home (in my case, a plastic tub with a lot of holes punched in it) directly under a light. One guy I caught yesterday was running in circles around the lid of the tub, trying to figure out how the rest of his species managed to get in there. I helped him find out exactly how, of course.
Come spring, my winter houseguests will be put to work in the community gardens around my high rise, where I expect they will repay their debt to me.
(I have a "Monk Parakeet" (Quaker Parrot) to my left, munching on birdie kibble, too, not that I set out in life to shelter benign "invasives".)
Yes, they will eat candy. The gumdrop is soft and the reason they eat aphids is because of the fact that the aphids drink glucose from plants so they do get all the nutrients they need. My ladybug lived for about two months. I geuss that's a reasonable life.
not vid lol i mean instructable. sorry