Amanda and I try to go to at least one of the Tacoma Farmers Markets every week. We usually pick up fresh flowers and produce and an occasional baked good. Recently, Amanda had an ulterior motive for our farmers market outing: Ladybugs.
Ladybugs apparently eat whatever makes dark spot on our roses, so Amanda dropped $10 on what must have been 500 of them. They lived in an old salsa container with sprouts, and the vendor at the market told us to keep them in the refrigerator to keep them in a cold coma and limit their mobility.
Our first stop after the market was a Mexican restaurant for lunch, so they warmed up like fajitas in there, and I was preoccupied thinking that they'd blow the lid off the container and infest the restaurant.
Lunch went without a ladybug outbreak, and we made it home OK with our new friends, which I placed in the refrigerator in the garage. They stayed there for a few days and when I went to retrieve them so that Amanda could release them to our garden beds, something terrible happened.
They died.
Or at least they looked dead. I know what dead bugs look like, and when I saw nearly all 500 of them upside down, I thought I was in the dog house for sure. The fridge was too cold, and I froze them to death.
Not the case. I nearly froze them to death. They came alive within an hour of exposure to room temperature. Whew. The release ceremony could begin, and our roses would soon be spotless.
Here's Sergio questioning Amanda's sanity.
Go, ladybug, go!
