PlantLife Online

Insects like the Lady Beetle (aka Ladybug) and its larva play an important role in reducing and controlling populations of insect pests. Every gardener has come a cross pests like the aphid and mealy bug and boy can they be annoying, but rather than using an insecticide sit back and let nature due the work. Insecticides kill the good guys too! The photo attached may look like a small dragon but it's actually the larva of a lady beetle on the prowl looking for its next meal of juicy sap suckers. Lady beetles can eat as many as 5000 aphids in its like time the majority of which are eaten while still in the larva stage.

Read More:

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05550.html

http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef105.asp