Swarms of Ladybugs

At nature class today, the kids learned about the capped landfill, and why it is important to remove trees that start growing there. Then they assisted park naturalist Scott in chopping some down. Mikro and the younger kids followed me around as I attempted to beat the bushes and catch bugs in a net. We came up with 7 different species, the universal favorite of which was the yellow and black ladybug.



At lunch on the playground, we discovered swarms of red ladybugs covering the play equipment. All the kids helped Mikro catch them. We must have over three dozen beetles, all of whom are currently inhabiting a large terrarium, constructed out of a huge plastic pretzel barrel, in my living room. That's in addition to the fifteen or so we saw develop from larvae in a different bug jar. So, more than 50 bugs, representing three different species...