Wednesday, October 21, 2009

It must be a sunny day in October because.....


there are lady bugs all over the front of the house! Every fall this happens. As I understand it the bugs are looking for a warm place to hibernate, so on the first warm day after a cold spell here they all come...house hunting!
Usually I break out the vacuum and clean them off the windows and doors. But I always miss a few and those few find cracks and crannies and,eventually, dry out and die...leaving a not so delightful odor!
Even though they are kind of a pain, they are also beautiful and, well, darn it, they make me smile.
I found a little history of the Ladybug nursery rhyme at this site: http://www.connectexpress.com/~ips/lady/rhyme.html
The Ladybug Nursery Rhyme

One of the best known of all nursery rhymes is the one that begins "Ladybug ladybug . . . " or, alternatively, "Ladybird ladybird . . . " One common version of this rhyme is:
Ladybug ladybug fly away home,Your house in on fire and your children are gone,All except one and that's little Ann,For she crept under the frying pan.
Another is:
Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home,Your house is on fire, your children all gone,Except little Nan, who sits in a pan,Weaving gold laces as fast as she can.
In Medieval England farmers would set torches to the old hop (used in flavoring beer) vines after the harvest in order to clear the fields for the next planting. This poem was sung as a warning to the ladybugs that were still crawling on the vines in search of aphids. The ladybugs' children (larvae) could get away from the flames, but the pupae, referred to as "Nan" in some versions, were fastened to the plants and thus could not escape.
Pupae are the larvae when they have formed a cocoon and are changing into adults. "Nan" was originally an affectionate form of the name "Ann" (but it is now generally used as a short form of "Nancy").

So, lets hear it for the ladybugs! The more the merrier! There's no stopping them, so you might as well smile about 'em!

2 comments:

Lisa Steptoe said...

I'll take 50 ladybugs over ONE of those damn stinkbugs that seem to also be taking up residence.

Paula said...

They are really pretty, but covering the front of your house? Not sure if that many is pretty or just kind of creepy crawly....
Loving the history of the Ladybug song. Very cool!