“Maybe we should re-home that ladybug,” Jon said to me as I took a video of it, “they keep falling off the ceiling onto my head when I’m reading”.
But I know she wouldn’t survive outside, not this time of year, and anyway, like the camel cricket, we’re housemates. Not to mention that I was enjoying watching her crawling on Mary Gabriel’s book “Foursome” about the creative and personal relationships between AlfredStieglitzz, Georgia O’Keefe, Paul Stand and Rebecca Salsbury.
I just kept thinking how the two of us perceive and experience the book in totally different ways. Except maybe for the way it feels.
Watching the ladybug walk along the cover, jacket and pages of the book I couldn’t’ help wonder if maybe she feels the texture of the same way I do. But then I read that ladybugs feel with their antenna and smell with their feet. And that seemed just too alien for me to relate to.
Still, I like that we can share a home and a book, each in our own way.
Looks like the ladybug was trying to slide underneath the cover. Maybe it was looking for somewhere to habitat. They do no harm and one can’t just throw them out in the cold.
They really are harmless Kaaren unless there gets to be too many of them, but we’re not there yet!
Maria, I posted this comment on IG but will repeat it here. This is an invasive Asian Lady Beetle.
“Because of the Asian Lady Beetle, several North American ladybug species have declined in numbers. Not only are native and invasive ladybug species competing for the same food source, the Asian Lady Beetle is hardier and stronger. It also has an arsenal of a parasitic fungus that kills other ladybug species, especially when native ladybugs find and feed off Asian Lady Beetle eggs and larvae.”
I’m afraid these are not so harmless. The “M” pattern on their head helps identify them.
Wow Hazel, I didn’t know that. I’m good to look at the video again for that marking and find out more about it.