Why are the lady bugs up in the mountains instead of protecting my garden? And how did they get there? Well . . . ladybugs migrate into the mountains in mid-May to June when aphids began to get scarce in the valley. How do they know there is more food in the mountains? They don’t. They fly to avoid starving. They fly up into the airflow (4-5,000 feet in the air) which carries them into the mountains. They do this because their ancestors did this and survived. Or . . . God or nature has a consciousness or we just don’t know.
They stay in the mountains, hibernate all winter, when it gets warm they wake up, and they’re hungry so . . . . . yes, they fly back up into the airflow (4-5,000 feet into the air). They fly up to 75 miles! Because they are hungry!
Scientists did study lady bugs in a wind tunnel. When they pumped in the smell of aphids, ladybugs flew straight. No scent, they zigzagged. This proved evolutionary programming (a fancy term that means if your species gets lucky enough times that luck becomes survival instinct in their genes), which leads ladybugs towards food. Crazy right? Or God or Mother Nature or we just don’t know.
What we do know is that ladybugs are sorta superheroes.
