Ladybugs.

Ladybugs are one of my favorite insects. I know there are many species but I only know the ones that come to my garden and this just so happens to be one of them, round, red, and with black dots on its shell.

They have these striking colors which are as bright as they are polished. Nature gives them this appearance to fool their predators.

Ladybugs often appear in my garden among plants that are being attacked by pests. Since I have known this part of them as friends of farmers, I have learned to love them much more than when I didn’t know them as such.

They tend to appear and then disappear randomly, so I only notice that they return whenever there are pests on a plant again.

I have learned that in some places where farmers are faced with large pests of aphids and mites that they don’t use chemicals on their plants, instead they buy these insects so that they eliminate as many pests as possible. I also know that each ladybug is capable of eating up to a thousand pests in a single day. What an appetite!

They come to my plants and leave whenever they want. I love to see them, hey climb onto my hand, I don't know what they are looking for but then I place them near the plant and then they walk back to the leaf very quickly to continue on their way.

This ladybug has a white mask around his face, he looks like a bandit! Below you can see that it’s red too. I had believed that they were black underneath, until I once saw them properly.

In my garden I met ladybugs with black dots, with orange colors and these with black lines. They make a drawing with these thick lines on their back that resembles another insect mounted on its shell.

They belong to the Coccinellidae family and, while they’re usually called ladybugs, their other common names are “vaquita” or “conchuela”.

If you see any of these insects on your plants, please don't kill them. They are your friends. They aren’t disease transmitters but pest eliminators for our beautiful plants.