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This legend begins in Europe during the Middle Ages, a time when castles were in fashion. Much of the land that surrounded a castle belonged to the lord of that castle.

The lord also owned some people as if they were property. These people were his serfs and they tilled the land and grew crops of many sorts including fruits and vegetables and most importantly, grain for bread.

One very unfortunate year a horde of insects descended upon the vast land holdings of the various castles. The voracious insects chomped their way across fields and orchards, leaving nothing but devastation in their wake. Fearful that all their food crops would be destroyed, the serfs and all the lords and ladies prayed to the Virgin Mary for help.

According to the legend and as if in answer to their prayers, a host of red and black beetles appeared. The beetles made a feast of the invading insects, gobbling them up in huge numbers until at last the crops were saved.

From that day forward the serfs and all the lords and ladies called their winged rescuers “Beetles of Our Lady.” “Our Lady” was another way to refer to the Virgin Mary. Over time the name was shortened to “Lady Beetles” and the cute little critters became known as “Ladybugs” here in the United States.

To this day ladybugs are still welcomed by farmers and gardeners alike. These shiny little insects are less than a 1/4 inch long and their favorite picnic lunch includes a menu of garden pests such as aphids and mealy bugs. One tiny ladybug can polish off 100 aphids in a day!

There are over 4,000 types of ladybugs and they can be found all over the world. Here in the United States they are usually red with black spots, though you’ll also find yellow or orange ones with black spots and black ones with red spots. Some ladybugs have no spots at all!

When you look at the colorfully spotted back of a ladybug you are actually looking at a pair of modified wings that are hard, shell-like covers. They are called the elytras and they protect the ladybug’s fragile flying wings.

The elytras are made of chitin, the same strong protein that forms our fingernails. When the ladybug wants to take off, the elytras open up to allow the hidden flying wings to move into flying position. During flight, a ladybug beats its wings 85 times a second!

Ladybugs hibernate during the autumn and winter. They find cozy hideaways under logs, at the base of grass blades or under piles of leaves that protect them from the cold. As the spring sun warms them they start to crawl out and up stalks of plants or blades of grass, hungry for a meal of aphids.

Once they’ve found a good-sized colony of aphids, the lady ladybugs lay 10 to 50 eggs in little clusters. The eggs hatch in 3 to 5 days and the little ladybug larvae have a ready food supply. The larvae, however, don’t look a thing like a ladybug. In fact they’re a lot more like teeny, deep blue, six-legged alligators with orange spots. They munch away for about 2 to 3 weeks and then wrap themselves up in a cocoon.

When the ladybug emerges from its cocoon about 7 to 10 days later, it finally looks like a ladybug, except that it doesn’t have any spots. It takes another 24 hours for the spots to appear.

When threatened, a ladybug will play dead. But if a bird or another insect is foolish enough to attack, the ladybug releases a smelly and nasty tasting chemical from all 6 of its leg sockets. Works like a charm! And speaking of charms, many people consider ladybugs good luck. Do you?