Ladybugs of Wisconsin's Journal

https://www.thoughtco.com/fascinating-facts-about-ladybugs-1968120

As a defense mechanism ladybugs produce a foul smelling hemolymph that seeps from their leg joins and leaves a yellow stain. Ladybug larvae can ooze alkaloids from their abdomens. Their coloration is a signal to their toxicity to potential predators. Many insect eating birds and animals avoid eating things in black and red colors.

Lady bugs feed on soft-bodied insects. Some insects ladybugs love to eat scale insects, whiteflies, mites, and aphids. A hungry adult ladybug can eat 50 aphids per day. It's estimated they eat 5,000 aphids over their lifetime.

A ladybugs lifecycle begins when a batch of bright yellow les are laid on a branch that is near a food source. They hatch into larvae in about four to ten days. They spend around three weeks feeding. Once they have ate enough they will build a pupa. A pupa is an insect in its inactive immature form between larva and adult. Within seven to ten days they will become adults and live for approximately one year.

Ladybugs are most often red or yellow with black spots. Nearly every color of the rainbow is found in some species of ladybug. Some can be as plain as black and white. Some ladybugs are exotic as dark blue and orange. Some species are spotted whereas some have stripes or checkers. Their color patterns are connected to the area which they live.

Ladybugs have no M shape of white on their black head. They are harmless, control garden pests, live outdoors, and are good for the environment.

Asian Lady Beetles have an M shape of white on their black head. They are aggressive and sometimes bite. They are harmful to dogs, invade homes, and leave behind an odor and yellow fluid.