The best days of teaching are often the craziest. Having our own ladybugs to observe applies. The kids are over the top about having ladybugs which is awesome. They are genuinely interested and engaged. They also will make ladybug pronouncements through the day in the middle of math, reading and writing.
This lead their teacher to say crazy things like "Don't talk to me unless all of your Ladybugs are dead" and "If you pick up your ladybugs one more time one of the two of your are going to bet set free".
The ladybugs themselves are fairly cooperative. Despite living in what must feel like a constant earthquake environment, they get "friendly" really fast. The extent of my instruction relating to the mating habits of this beetle is as follows: If a small ladybug (male) is piggy-backing on a larger ladybug (female) for a while (minutes to hours) they are probably mating. When the mommy and daddy mate, they produce offspring. The offspring will be teeny tiny rows of bright yellow eggs. That is the extent of the reproduction talk. Turns out you need a high-powered microscope to figure out whether it is a boy or a girl, so there's nothing graphic here.
Some interesting things to note:
Ladybugs flap their wings 85 times a second!
When threatened they "bleed" a foul smelling fluid from their knees
They'll eat about 5,000 aphids in their lifetimes
And if pushed, the'll become cannabalistic.
I can't make this stuff up. I do hope that you are hearing about it at home.
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