Assume an Error & Stick to It

Ladybugs have a good life. Not only do bodily toxins protect them from becoming a bird's lunch or a frog's supper, they kill harmful pests and are pretty enough to charm to most squeamish ladies. Ladybugs are attractive and good, a winning combination in our day and age.

Or, at least most are.

Turns out the orange variety I've watched on my squash plants, suspiciously near large chewed areas, were not defending my plants from harm. They were feasting. They are known as Squash Beetles and are one of two varieties of ladybug that harm plants. So now there is no more twisted reasoning justifying my flawed knowledge. I saw they were eating the leaf, but I doubted my eyes and went with what I presumed to be true. I hypothesized tiny perpetrators with large appetites that were being eaten by the orange ladybugs. Oh, foolish me.



Under the Squash Leaf

Seeing an orange devil supping on a leaf, I rushed over to the plant and knocked it off. I lifted the leaf, preparing for a final vicious assault when my fury was halted by a tiny box turtle, no bigger than a silver dollar. It was the cutest thing. It showed no fear, even when I picked it up to show Matilda and Owen. Later when we returned it to the squash plant (where it might have been snacking, too!) it ran off, seemingly unaffected.