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Show Ladybugs Fight Pests Ladybugs have gone to war! Four million strong, they are marching through California's citrus groves ' staging a counter-attack, against the fruit crop's deadly enemies, the "Cit-rophilus" "Cit-rophilus" and other mealybugs. These small black ladybugs, or ladybird beetles, with reddish markings, mark-ings, are scarcely more than an eighth of an inch long, but 10 adult ladybugs and their offspring can clean a mealybug-infested tree in a few months, says the National Geographic Geo-graphic society. Originally brought from Australia in 1892 to combat the citrus fruit pest, then spreading throughout California's Cal-ifornia's groves, the ladybug Crypto-laemus, Crypto-laemus, a small colorful beetle, has since been produced by the millions in numerous California insectaries. |