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The ladybug is a tiny red protector that eats thousands of pests

When you see a small red beetle with black spots on a leaf, you know you've met one of the most useful insects on the planet. The ladybug.

It's tiny - only 5-8 millimeters. It would fit on the nail of your little finger. But in its entire life - and a ladybug lives for about a year - it eats up to 5,000 aphids. Five thousand! Aphids are tiny green pests that suck the sap from plants and destroy entire gardens. If it weren't for ladybugs, our roses, tomatoes and apple trees would be in big trouble.

Why do ladybugs have spots? This is a warning to birds: "Don't eat me, I'm bitter!" And it's true. When they are scared, the ladybug releases a yellow droplet with a bitter taste from its legs. Birds will taste it once - and remember it forever. Red color with black spots in nature almost always means one thing: "careful, inedible.".

The number of spots on the back is not the age of the ladybug, as children often think. It is its species. There are seven-spotted, two-spotted, fourteen-spotted, and even twenty-two-spotted. In Ukraine, the most common are red seven-spotted.

An old Ukrainian tradition says: if a sun sits on your palm, make a wish and say "Sun, sun, fly to the sky." It will fly up - and your wish will come true. Maybe it's a fairy tale. But here's what's definitely true: the sun in your garden is your little savior.