Thursday, April 21, 2011

Garden Update

Our humble garden has attracted all sorts of little critters including this cute yellow ladybug. Do you know what makes a ladybug yellow? Well, if not...let us educate you. They can excrete their blood as a defense mechanism, thus creating their yellow appearance. Maybe the fact that it was walking all over our cactus had something to do with that...OUCH!! We also have a TOMATO THIEF!! Just as they were getting so big and beautiful, overnight something {most likely a possum of raccoon} stole them. Now home to the tomato garden are hard core tomato cages. Hopefully they will do the trick...unless these thieves are descendants of Sherlock Holmes.

Interesting Ladybug Facts {ladybuglady.com}:
  • In the past, doctors would smash ladybugs and put them in your mouth for toothaches!
  • In Switzerland, ladybugs are called "good God's little fairy".
  • You can fit 80,000 ladybugs into a gallon jar.
  • Male ladybugs are smaller than female ladybugs.
  • A ladybug beats its wings 85 times per second when it flies.
  • Their spots fade as they get older.
  • Ladybugs are the official state insect of Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Tennessee.
  • The spotted wing covers on ladybugs are made of chitin, the same material that makes up human fingernails.

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