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tle is now an endangered species. I have happy teenage
memories when its appearance was one of the happiest
appearances in gardening. It has been so devastated in
eastern North America, (Turtle Island), that the discovery of a single individual is a major cause for celebration.
The species although not endangered, is not doomed since
a viable population has been documented as hanging in
Long Island, New York. Its decline is a serious threat to
humanity, since the lady beetles are an important predator of agricultural pests, such as aphids.
The Lady Beetle, also called Lady Bug, despite its great
benefit to human civilization dependent upon agriculture,
has endured a lot of abuse. The ancient poem that I am
modifying so you has its origins in a peculiar custom which
itself shows this. It is both marked paradoxically, by respect for the Lady Beetle, but displaying simultaneously
displaying the sort of contempt, that has caused it to become an endangered species.
The burning of farmland after harvesting is a practice
which does great harm to the environment. Although
now banned in Canada, it endures in many countries, helping to trigger negative climate impacts by the dumping of
carbon soot.
Farmers however, attempted to reduce the harmful
environmental impacts of their actions, by chasing away
the Lady Beetle before they torched their fields. To make
this difficult task more efficient, they sang what endures
as a children’s song, “Lady Bug, Lady Bug, Fly Away Home.”
It can now read.
Lady Bug, Lady Bug
May you on longer roam
Stay in Thundering Waters
Your refuge and home
Please council keep it
Don’t give in to the greed