Lady bugs belong to the family Coccinellidae, which includes over 400 species in North America, and over 5,200 species of lady bugs worldwide. There are 290,000 different species of bugs in total, more than any other kind of animal.

Love. Luck. Lush crops. Fine weather. When most of us think of ladybugs, good things come to mind.
To an English farmer, a ladybug signals a good harvest. In a French vineyard, a ladybug is a sign of good weather. A ladybug walking on the hand of a Swedish girl is said to be measuring it for wedding gloves and in Canada, ladybugs wintering in your garage mean good luck.
Bright, beautiful, and easy-going, ladybugs are hard not to like. And the more you know about them, the better it gets.

Medieval Europeans believed lady bugs were sent from heaven to save the crops. Why? Lady bugs eat aphids and other harmful pests such as scale insects. Munching on up to 500 aphids a day, lady bugs take a big bite out of pest problems in our gardens, orchards and farms.

After four or five days, the eggs hatch into larvae that look like tiny spiky accordions with legs. The larvae spend four or five weeks eating aphids, shedding their skins three times before turning into pupae, which resemble little lobsters without legs or claws. About 10 days later, pupae squeeze out of their skins and emerge as lady bugs. It takes about 24 hours for lady bugs to get their bright spots. Then they roam around for a few weeks eating aphids before finding a place to sleep for the winter.