Ladybirds are fearsome predators within their environment and are known as gardener's friends as they munch all of the tiny pests that eat the plants. Ladybirds primarily eat aphids, greenfly, plant-lice and other small insects. It is thought that the average ladybird eats more than 5,000 aphids in just one year.
Ladybirds are prey to a number of animals in their environment that include birds, reptiles, amphibians, small mammals, rodents and other insects. It is thought that the bright colour of the ladybird is used to deter hungry predators as they think that the ladybird will taste disgusting or is poisonous.
The female ladybird can lay more than 2,000 eggs in one year that hatch in just a few days. The ladybird larvae hatches out of the eggs and looks nothing like an adult ladybird as the ladybird larvae is long in shape and is generally one colour. After a couple of weeks, the ladybird larvae evolves into a ladybird pupa which is about the same size and colour as an adult ladybird but has a protective layer surrounding it, until it has developed it's wings. Once the ladybird pupa has developed, it breaks out of the skin surrounding it to become an adult ladybird.
Due to climate changes and habitat loss, the ladybird is now considered to be one of the animal species that is threatened with extinction. It has been noted that ladybirds are particularly sensitive to temperature and will die from dehydration if it is much hotter than it should be.