The Loveliness Of Ladybugs At Walden West

SARATOGA - Take a look at a Facebook posting last week on Patch from Walden West Outdoor School & Summer Camp in Saratoga and Cupertino.

It’s a shot taken at their Saratoga location, showing off what gardeners call ‘the loveliness of ladybugs.’ “It’s an awesome sight to see!” says the camp.

Ladybugs - or if you prefer, Coccinellidae - are generally considered useful insects, eating harmful aphids hanging out in your garden. It’s been said one ladybug can eat up to 5,000 aphids in a year.

Curiously, bug-study scientists actually call ladybugs by a different name: ladybird beetles, or lady beetles.

Ladybirds have a background in popular culture as a children’s nursery rhyme:

“Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home

Your house is on fire and your children are gone

All except one, and that’s Little Anne

For she has crept under the warming pan.”

(from Ladybird, Ladybird, an old English language nursery rhyme)