A Ladybug Party!

Today at school we had a ladybug party! The children loved it! The parents and teachers also enjoyed it. I'm not so sure about the ladybugs. After all, they had been sitting in that little paper carton in the refrigerator for several days at least. Who knows how long they had been in the fridge at the nursery before I bought them.

Then we finally take them out, dump them out into a new area, one with lots and lots of plants, but also lots of children. Before the ladybugs even have a chance to get oriented, there are dozens of tiny hands reaching down trying to pick them up. We did talk with the children beforehand about ladybugs being good for our garden, and we were going to treat the ladybugs gently. Still, we have some 2 year olds, and other very excitable children. I'm not sure that all the ladybugs survived the party, but it looks like most of them did.

We spent about 45 minutes in the garden with the ladybugs. The ladybugs on the strawberries and lemon balm really seemed to do well. They quickly moved deep into the thick foliage. The ladybugs in the other boxes were not quite so lucky. There are still lots of bare spots in those boxes, since the plants are still small, and the children could easily find them there.

As interest in the ladybugs began to wane, we drifted out to the playground for a picnic of fruit salad, and time for the parents to talk and the children to play. Overall it was a successful spring social. (We'll see tomorrow how the ladybugs felt, if any of them are still there.)