Ladybug Facts for Kids Preschool Ideas

This page may contain affiliate links. Learn More.

Are your kids enamored with ladybugs? Mine sure are. We love learning everything we can about these beautiful insects. Check out these ladybug facts for kids to learn. Nature activities and bug facts for kids are a great way to teach kids hands on lessons with meaning.

Ladybugs are fun to catch and observe. You can go out to the yard and find a few, put them in a clear container with holes and watch some of the things they do.

What do ladybugs eat?

If you want to keep your ladybugs for a few days, you can take a couple of raisins, cut them in half and soak them in warm water for a couple of hours. Dab them with a paper towel and put them in the ladybug container. Ladybugs love raisins.

Check out this downloadable printable ladybug facts lapbook to go along with your ladybug facts lesson plans.

Outdoors in the wild, ladybugs eat aphids, up to 50 a day. They have a voracious appetite for the garden pests and are beneficial to your garden.

Facts about ladybugs for preschool

Ladybugs use their antennae to taste and smell. They find food with them. They find out what is safe to eat with them.

Ladybugs are a true beetle. Beetles have one set of wings that are thick and hardened and one set that is not. Ladybugs have one pair of hard red and black wings and one pair of all-black wings underneath.

For Printable Playdough Mats with 9 different insect lifecycles, check these out. So fun!

Ladybugs are an insect. Insects have 6 legs and three parts. A head, abdomen, and thorax.

Each ladybug has between zero and 20 spots. They get more spots as they age.

Ladybugs will live for about one year.

Fun facts about ladybugs for kids

A ladybug’s red color is one of their defenses. In nature, the color red indicates that something is poisonous. Ladybugs also emit an odor when they feel threatened that repels predators.

Another fun fact about ladybugs is they play dead to defend themselves.

Ladybug information

Ladybugs are a wonderful beneficial for the vegetable garden. If you buy ladybugs for your garden, they will fly away if they don’t find a food source. You can attract them with water sources and places for them to hide and hibernate such as piles of brush, leaves, and piles of sticks or wood. You can also build a home for ladybugs. 

Ladybugs hibernate together in bunches for warmth. They don’t come out of hibernation until it is 60 degrees or above. This is so interesting and I think it makes really cool ladybug facts for kids. 

Interesting facts about ladybug lifecycle

The adult ladybug lays an egg. In 3 to 10 days it will hatch into a larva which looks like a tiny alligator. It stays in the larval stage for about a month. Next, the larvae pupate by making a small casing like a cocoon for a butterfly. They attach to a vertical surface and make the change. This takes about 15 days. They hang there until they emerge as an adult.

Ladybugs are so fun and interesting to study with kids. Studying insects is a great stem activity that will encourage your kids to love science. They are so cute and colorful, it makes them a perfect subject to draw kid’s interest.

For more bug units check out:

• caterpillar and butterfly theme,
• praying mantis facts
• dragonfly facts
• facts about rollie pollies and other bugs. 
• Grasshopper facts for kids
• Ant facts for kids