Typhoid Stimey Strikes Again

Alternatively titled: "The Eradication of the Ladybugs," "Stimey Continues to Cut a Swath of Death Through Hordes of Tiny Animals Everywhere," OR "Oh. I Was Supposed to FEED Them?"

Well, it's happened. The ladybugs are dead.

Evidently, this was not unexpected news.

I figure that this puts me in serial killer range. Not to mention that—and I'm not entirely sure about this but I think it's highly likely—killing masses of ladybugs increases the likelihood that I'm going to hell. Or at least earning myself a decade of bad luck or something.

They started out so well. They bustled around in their little larval state, eating the food that came in the tube with them. They were fun to watch. I even put their little habitat on my desk because they were so cool.

However by the time I did that, they were probably already dead. I'm tres observant.

There was one little guy who never made it out of larva stage that had been stuck to the side of the habitat since we first got it. I was going to make a joke about Corpsey McLarvaBug as a grotesque reminder of the grim specter of death to the other ladybugs. Unfortunately, the adult ladybugs were facing an even grimmer specter.

Look at my cool ladybug!!


Look at me watering my cool ladybug the next day!!

Huh. That's weird. He hasn't moved.

After poking at the semi-mummified body with the water dropper, I realized that no one in the habitat had moved for quite a while. Even when being poked with a water dropper.

Here's what I think happened. And by "here's what I think happened," I mean, "Here's what happened."

I was so excited watching the larvae turn into ladybugs that I totally failed to notice that they had turned into ladybugs and could no longer eat their larvae food. For want of one softened raisin, the colony was lost.

Here is Jack jabbing at the dead bugs.

I want another chance. I know I can do it this time. I've learned. I'll remember to feed my pets this time. I swear. I ordered another tube of larvae. (Right now you should imagine dozens of ladybug larvae visibly shuddering and then fighting their way to the back of their holding enclosure.)

As long as the kind people at Insect Lore don't regularly read my blog, my order will be filled and arrive shortly. I'll keep you posted. Rest assured that I have a stock of raisins on hand waiting for the metamorphosis.

Disclosure: The ladybug habitat was provided to me free for review purposes by Insect Lore. I'll be posting my review after my second batch of victims ladybugs grows to a ripe old age and flourishes as I release them into the spring sky.

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