Thursday, March 03, 2016

Shoreline Hazards

Above Photo: A 12-Spot Ladybug (LadyBeetle) on a Cursed Crowfoot Buttercup wildflower (Ranunculus sceleratus).

The bright red and contrasting black spot colors encourage predators to leave the LadyBeetles alone. Irritate the LadyBeetle and it may squirt you with a strongly pungent yellowish poisonous substance.

Irritate the Cursed Buttercup by picking the yellow flowers to hold under someone's chin or by crushing the wildflower parts like leaves and you may end up with a nasty case of dermatitis.

Many unusual hazards exist when paddling along shoreline weeds.

1 comment:

  1. Your Ladybug beetle looks different than ours in the west (Convergent Ladybug), but they're good in the garden as they eat their weight in pesky aphids. Nice pic.

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