Lady Beetle Bugs

Last Saturday at our farmers' market we had a bunch of beautiful lettuce heads for sale in our booth.  As the morning progressed, I began to notice little critters, like this, on the heads of lettuce.  Looks kind of scary at first glance, but you don't want to squash this bug because it is Lady Bug larvae (or Lady Beetle which is the official common name recognized by the Entomological  Association of America).  At this stage of development, the larvae are also called "aphid lions" because they are voracious and can consume their own weight in aphids.  Adult Lady Bugs may consume up to 50 a day.

Here is another one of the larvae. After a while, I began to pick them off to take back home to the garden.  I collected some of the lettuce leaves that had fallen off and put them in a plastic pan.  Then, I put the larvae in the pan.  I think we made it home with most of them.  They can't fly at this stage, but they are quite mobile and can crawl pretty quickly.

We work hard to attract beneficial insects to our farm and keep them here.  We have large areas of the farm that we do not mow until after frost in the fall.  These contain lots of wildflowers, such as yarrow, which attract beneficial insects.  

After 20-30 days, the larvae pupate, then emerge as adults in another 3-12 days, depending on temperatures and species. Adults may live only a few months to more than one year. Here's one of the adult Lady Bugs that was on the lettuce.

Isn't she (or he) a beauty?