Harmonia Axyridis

Lady bugs are pretty little things. They are round and gentle, and it always seems like good luck when they land on someone. I'm pretty sure someone told me it was good luck once, and I believed them. I like lucky things happening to me, and if that means a round little beetle with bright red wings and little black spots is lucky, fine.

As it happens, I came across a website called the Lost Ladybug Project. Apparently ladybugs are disappearing from their native territories, and people are wondering why. They're also encouraging kids and ladybug enthusiasts to take photos and help the Project find out where the ladybugs have gone.

I'm pretty sure they've all moved into our house.

This may sound a little surprising, and you might be thinking to yourself, "Um, I don't think I want to read this anymore, this girl is a little bit nuts."

But I'm a little bit serious, too.

I have come across approximately thirty ladybugs in our house. I think they might be the Harmonia Axyridis, but it's hard to tell (I'm not really a ladybug expert). I have begun to read a little bit about them, because it's almost like I'm too lucky.

Lady bugs keep the plant-eating bug population low. They have even been introduced from Asia into areas where nasty plant-eaters were destroying crops. They are disappearing, some of them so rare that they haven't been spotted more than a couple of times in the last 10 years (in areas where they used to be abundant).

If you're like me, you'll start spotting them everywhere you go (on your curtains, in the bedroom, on the couch, in the window sill...), and also out walking, perhaps on some pretty wheatgrass. And if you want to be part of the Ladybug Project, you'll take a photo or two and send it in so they can start tracking where the ladybugs have gone.

Who knows, you may get lucky.