For fun, we bought a lady bug kit (complete with coupon for free larvae!). Due to weather issues, too hot, too cold, etc, it's taken us a while to get our bugs into their dome. They came as funky looking long, skinny, black bugs with yellow strips. They ate some kind of grainy food the lady bug people sent along with them, then traveled up the side of the dome to morph into ladybugs.
I took a couple of shots of them as they were starting their change.
This one makes it look like monster bugs are invading our home, ha ha!
Naomi enjoyed them for the most part, but her favorite part was when we released them today. We took them into the back yard after lunch and took off them dome. At first the ladybugs had no idea what to do, their either stood very still or ran all over the bottom of their habitat. Naomi decided to help them along by coaxing them onto leaves and then transplanting them to a nearby mint plant. Some of the ladybugs accepted her help gratefully which others discovered their wings and took flight. One ladybug even decided it wanted to continue to live with Naomi and climbed into her hair!
Sorry, no pictures of the release, I was concerned for the ladybugs safety! You never know what a 5 year old might do.
