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 Known by many names, ladybird, ladybug or lady beetle, ladybugs are most welcome in the garden. They are recognized as one of the most beneficial garden insects.
| |  Known by many names, aphid, green fly, and plant lice, this insect is probably the most despised of all garden pests. Most people recognize this insect and the damage it does well before they know what it is.
The aphididae family or aphid, is an insect that sucks the sap from the young leaves and buds of plants. There are many different species of aphid. Some only invade one type of plant, while others are less discerning. Either way, very few plants are impervious to some species of aphid. They can be identified as tiny, soft-bodied, pear shaped insects, which come in a rainbow of colours, green, yellow, black, grey, red, purple and brown. This variation in colour can be confusing to someone who is not familiar with them. Some have wings, while others are wingless. Most aphids have a pair of tube-like structures protruding from their abdomen called cornicles and a third projection from the tip of the abdomen called a cauda.
Differences between aphids are not just a result of variation among species, but are a result of the aphid's peculiar lifecycle. In the Spring all of the aphids that hatch from over-wintered eggs are wingless females. These females are all born with the ability to reproduce live miniature offspring called nymphs, without the need to mate. As a result, they will rapidly reproduce all summer long. This is why it can sometimes appear that an infestation has taken place overnight. In the Fall, both males and females are produced which subsequently mate to create eggs for over-wintering. Some of these females have wings, while all of the males do. | |
Aphids are one of the major foods of all four thousand species of this metamorphosing insect. Ladybugs eat aphids whole as adults, and one ladybug may eat as many as five thousand in a lifetime. As youngsters they stab aphids with their mandibles (biting jaws) and suck out their juices, not unlike the way the aphid sucks sap from leaves. Ladybugs are often named after the number of spots on their wing covers. There is ten-spot ladybug, the six-spot ladybug etc. Their wing covers are most often red or orange with black spots, but variations include black with yellow or orange spots, yellow with black, orange with white or even orange yellow and black all in one. In times of danger, ladybugs are able to roll over and play dead. Their enemies don’t like to eat them because the joints in their bodies give off a fluid that tastes bad. Their bright colouring is said to warn birds of their awful taste. 
