My catch and release program

Every now and then, while riding my bike home from work, I’ll notice a ladybug on my shirt. Usually on the sleeve.

Not wanting it to travel too far from wherever it calls home, I usually manage to coax it off by reaching under the shirt and gently flicking the material beneath the insect.

But yesterday afternoon a ladybug must have ridden all the way home with me. Stepping out of the shower, I found it climbing a bathroom wall above the clothes hamper where I had placed Thursday’s work clothes.

I located a plastic Solo cup and a magazine subscription card. And employing an approach I have used when evicting spiders, I ushered the ladybug out the back door and urged it onto the closest bush.

In retrospect, I wish I had released it onto the potted 2011 poinsettia currently thriving on the patio. But as I was wearing nothing but a towel, it seemed best to limit my foray into the outdoors.

So that leads me to a question.

To what lengths would you go to rescue a pest-eating ladybug?