L is for Ladybug

Ladybug ladybug fly away home! I had to look up the rest of that little poem, and this is what I found on this website:

"Ladybug, Ladybug, fly away home....your house is on fire, and your children will burn.  Except
little Nan, who sits in a pan, weaving gold laces as fast as she can!"
Undoubtedly, you're familiar with this well-known children's rhyme, but do you know how it originated? In Medieval England, the farmers would set torches to the old Hop vines after the harvest, to clear the fields for the next planting. The poem was a warning to the aphid-eating Ladybugs, still crawling on the vines in search of aphids.  The Ladybugs' children (larvae) could get away from the flames, but the immobile pupae (Nan) remained fastened to the plants (laces) and couldn't escape.  Kinda morbid, huh?




Ladybugs are known to be very helpful, but at the moment I am not very appreciative of them. They seem to be invading our house. Admittedly, they have had free reign for a year or so, but, they need to know that the time has come for them to find a new place to live.


With the cooler weather, they have not been as apparent. However, when the sun heats up the glass patio door to the deck, they come out in all their orange/red black-spotted glory! Crawling all around and up and down on the patio door. When I opened the door to clean it (yes, I have been known to clean every so often - but only when it's needed) I discovered piles of the little beetles all hovering together, in the very corner of the door, one on top of the other until they had made a large cluster of ladybugs. 


It is actually very difficult to pick them up with your fingers without squishing them, but I found that a whisk broom and dustpan works quite well. I'd brush them off the door (you don't want to know how many filled the dustpan) then toss them outside to find a new home.


However, I began to suspect that they merely flew right back to the door, because it seemed no matter how many I got rid of, the number of ladybugs never decreased. Do they come with a built-in homing device? 


These pictures don't give a true representation, because in order to get the entire door in the picture, the little ladies are no longer visible. Just trust me. There are way too many ladybugs loitering around.

Ladybug Ladybug fly away home. And, your home is not here!!

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