Ladybugs
Funny how even people who are afraid of most bugs seem to like ladybugs. My youngest, Eric, is a typical rambunctious 6 year old boy, but becomes a quivering mass at the site of a mosquito or fly, and scrambles to get as far away from it as he can. But put a ladybug in front of him, and he is quickly engaged in watching it, with a smile on his face.
In the mid-1970’s, I was on a burro pack trip in July in the Sacramento Mountains of New Mexico. About 5 other girls and I covered 8-10 miles a day on foot for 10 days, with our trusty, if stubborn pack animals hauling our equipment and food. Even in those days, it was a rarity to experience a pack saddle, especially for over a week at a time. It rained reliably each afternoon, usually for 3 or 4 hours.
Some 5 days into our journey, we arrived at our campsite (really a sloping field with only landowner’s permission and a nearby spring to establish it) and unloaded our gear. The ground was soggy, but it had stopped raining. Per our routine, we tossed up the pup tents (canvas, 4ft wooden poles at each end, and no floor) and quickly stowed our personal equipment inside. Then it was off to collect wood for a fire for supper and care for the burros. Probably 2 hours later, we returned to our our tent to unroll our sleeping bags.
What a surprise awaited us.
Every possible surface inside the tent was covered with ladybugs. They looked like a pattern on the canvas, and sounded like leaves when you brushed them and they moved. They quickly landed on my arms when I reached inside to move my gear outside, and kind of freaked me out.
We unstaked the tent and uprooted it to another less inhabited site closer to bedtime. There were ladybugs there, too, but completely covering the ground with a cover before we unrolled our bags helped. We also slept with the tentflaps open all night, despite an occasional drizzle.
I’d almost forgotten about that event, from over 20 years ago, until I was visiting Muir Woods in 1997. I took my then-8 year old son and husband, who were far less interested in the Woods experience than I was. In October there, the ladybugs nest to begin hibernation, and there was that scene, the small bumpy insects covering every square millimeter of vegetation in sight. My son finally, finally, finally slowed down to admire the sight.
