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Love. Luck. Lush crops. Fine weather. When most of us think of ladybugs, good things come to mind.

To an English farmer, a ladybug signals a good harvest. In a French vineyard, a ladybug is a sign of good weather. A ladybug walking on the hand of a Swedish girl is said to be measuring it for wedding gloves and in Canada, ladybugs wintering in your garage mean good luck.

Bright, beautiful, and easy-going, ladybugs (scientists call them lady beetles or ladybirds) are hard not to like. And the more you know about them, the better it gets.

Medieval Europeans believed lady beetles were sent from heaven to save the crops. Why? Lady beetles eat aphids and other harmful pests such as scale insects. Munching on up to 500 aphids a day, lady beetles take a big bite out of pest problems in our gardens, orchards and farms.

But our love affair with lady beetles has led us to mess with nature. In the 1880's, lady beetles brought from Australia saved all the orange trees in California from a pest called 'cottony cushion scale'. Since then, more than 170 species of lady beetle have been brought from overseas to North America to fight pests.

Growing up I was told that if a Ladybug landed on you a new Love was in your future or your true love was thinking of you.

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