Ladybug love: Getting lucky
It's always good luck to see a ladybug, just ask these two!
They are on a plant I started from seed many years ago. In fact so long ago, I couldn't remember what it was.
The luck these ladybugs are bringing to the garden will be more of their kind. The female can wait months to lay their eggs. She will find a spot with lots of food, like aphids to deposit the eggs.
When the nymphs hatch they can eat thousands of aphids or other insects during their three to six week life.
The plant in question is Conium maculatum or poison hemlock. Yep, it's the stuff that killed Socrates. You certainly would want to nibble on the leaves or sap, you'd could get very sick.
It's so prolific that in some states it's classfied as a noxious weed.
It's beautiful though, brings in the good bugs and hapily self seeds. Conium maculatum is a biennial. The first year growing foliage, the second year flowering an then dies.
I guess it's always good to know what you're growing in the garden.
I'm glad these two ladybugs forced me into a little research to see what I planted all those years ago.