While an acre of broccoli or two acres of strawberries might be inferior to a multi-specied meadow of wildflowers and grasses, it must look pretty good to the birds and bugs compared to a hundred acres of walnut orchards with little or no vegetation underneath them. Every night during this time of year, flocks of swallows descend on our transplanted cucumber and summer squash fields to frenetically feed on the hundreds of cucumber beetles that wait until dusk to begin flying from plant to plant. The party goes on for hours, the birds swooping and dipping drunkenly, gorging themselves on bugs that would otherwise be demolishing our crops. It s quite a sight. Then there are the ladybugs.
Ladybugs get no respect in the human world.
Ladybugs are serial killers, carnivores that feast on aphids, caterpillars, and other crop munchers. Before I strip you of all your pretensions about these creatures, I will note that the adult ladybugs are not the truly insatiable hunters. Yes, they do eat their share of bugs. But they actually prefer dessert the nectar and pollen of flowering plants like fennel and allysum. Maybe it is all these sweets that accounts for their middle-aged rotundness.