What do you get when you have:
this...
that...
...and those?
These!
I went out in the garden and discovered little yellow eggs on a dill plant. After returning indoors I felt something crawling on my arm...it was the above creature. Upon returning outside I spotted many sets of ladybug eggs and more than 50 nymphs all over the dill. (Click the photo and you can count a few.)
I must be getting more aware of what is in the garden, because I cannot recall seeing the running of the nymphs in the past.
These little guys will eat a huge share of aphids in the garden at this stage (something like 500) any many more as adults (another 4500)...yippee. They also eat other pests when there are no aphids.
I spotted some with yellow legs, some with black legs, and even one that was mostly white.
These can sure look a little scary, but they are very good...I am glad I can witness them in our garden. For the next few weeks I will closely watch these and see if I can catch some in the pupal stage before becoming adults (eggs hatch in 1/2-1 week, nymphs/larva last 2-4 weeks, pupa last 1 week, and adults last 2-3 months).
