Ladybug Ladybug - Is THIS Your Home?

What do I do with you?

I keep a little bowl on the window ledge above the kitchen sink which I use to keep fresh tomatoes or avacados in to ripen (I've heard you should store tomatoes at room temperature for the best flavor, and I believe its true now that I've tried it)  And I don't have a dishwasher so I spend a fair amount of time at the sink. 

I was doing dishes and glanced over at this bowl and I saw this ladybug atop the tomatoes - at first it did not strike me as strange until looking past the bowl out the window to see the snow coming down it occured to me this little feller (or fell-ey) must be stranded inside the house, he/she should be hibernating. 

Well, if you are like me then your first instinct is to mother the wee thing and so I have done some research on what to do with it - which I gathered from Answers.com:

"What do you feed pet ladybugs?"

"You must provide Ladybugs with fresh water and food, even if you think they are hibernating. Do not give them distilled water! Use Spring water, if possible, or use water that has been boiled and sat for 24 hours. For their food, use a small Styrofoam tray to put the food on so you can keep the area clean. (They also like to hide under the edges when you put it in a corner.) Use a sugar water mixture (1 part sugar to 10 parts water) or you can use hummingbird nectar mix. The nectar mix does provide more vitamins that then sugar water, but make sure you don't mix up big batches because it only keeps for about a week. Soak a few cottonballs in the food mixture and put them in empty caps from juice jugs. Make sure you change the cottonballs once a week, and add to them in-between if necessary. And, make sure you keep their regular drinking water full. Put a few small pebbles in a juice cap and keep the water level just full enough do that they can use the stones for safety. Do not just put a capful of water or it can be real easy for them to drown. If you want to give them a little variety to eat, give them a few pieces of fruit every once in awhile, but be sure you DO NOT give them anything acidic. The safest fruits are strawberries, apricots and raisins. Soak a raisin in water for a few hours to rehydrate it before you give it to them."

I do have raisins and I do have some small pebbles and a bottle cap so I think I will try to feed my poor little pet tomorrow.  If he/she survives and thrives do you have a name you could suggest? 

Barb Derksen's Artistic Christmas Kit

My very first digital scrapbooking kit is available for Sale at Scrapbook-Elements.com/sbe if you are looking for a sweet little kit to use to scrapbook your fondest Christmas Memories!  There are LOADS of new products at SBE from many talented designers!

And stay tuned here tomorrow for a FREEBIE - a darling Quick Page cooked up by Valinda using this kit! 

In case you did not read several posts ago - I am hoping to blog daily through December and my friend JanMary and sister Nina are hoping to do the same, why not hop over and check if they are holding up their end of the bargain - and fink on them if they are not?  *wink*