They reproduce so quickly it doesn't matter if they die, especially since they're all clones of each other because aphids reproduce asexually. So they evolved away from a need for a strong fight or flight reflex like most animals possess.
SemperCallide well the animal world has many occurrences of this. Take for example the sun fish. To reproduce it literally releases 300 million eggs into the water and basically subsists with the quantity over quality strategy
While there is a lot I disagree with in society I do have to say how happy I am that I am probably going to die in a bed or in an explosion, not getting eaten by a predator rear-end first.
Explosion is probably one of the least likeliest ways you would die. You’d be 1000x more likely to die from something as mundane as making a RU-vid comment.
I especially love how the aphids don't even care that one of them is being eaten butt first. There's no panic. There's no running for their lives. They just keep nomming plant juices until it's their turn.
Favorite part of owning a rose garden is watching this happen. I love that the aphids have no predatory sense to bug out. They just watch like “interesting. Wonder what’s gonna happen nex-“
I love how low key this video is not the microscope part, but the generic RU-vid music the really simple description It seems more like some biologist or plant enthusiast posted this after he got a really cool microscope and not Hank who's a huge deal on RU-vid
It's so amazing to see the ladybug - which we often see as a cute and beautiful insect - as the impressive and imposing predator it actually is. Watching it so close up munching on those aphids is so grotesque and mesmerizing, and deeply moving.
watching this after exterminating a hundred aphids from my houseplant for the first time. super satisfying to watch after they tried to massacre my boy
Kaylee Touw Cute? CUTE? How? The conclusion I drew from this video is that ladybugs are terrifying massive machines of death when observed through a microscope.
To be honest, that's just part of the charm! They have super cute faces and looks and everything but they can also be ferocious aphid eating awesomeness thing. Definitely still cute.
Yesterday I went grocery shopping. I found a ladybug in my spinach. It now lives in my window garden box. She’s kinda my pet now and I love her 😍 I ended here trying to see what they eat lol 💚💚💚💚
It's like a buffet. The aphids don't even run away, the lady bugs and their larvae can just chow down until they're full. Yay lady bugs, I knew I liked them!
Thanks for the advice! Currently I'm finding quite a few confused ladybirds around my house, and have been releasing them outside onto the plant, but if I could buy a whole load of them that would be very useful, I'll look into it!
Thank you Hank for showing me what ladybug larvae look like. I have a bunch on my hops and thought they were bad bugs. Now I know we have a happy colony of ladybugs being born. Hopefully they will move to my rose bushes that are nearby.
Hank, you should turn your ladyscope on some ants. More importantly, put a fingernail clipping near their mound and then find out where they take it. I have a paper that's due in a few days and the ants in my ant farm aren't doing anything with my clippings!
That one aphid after watching a child get eaten, then the dude next to him slowly get mulched and detoured. 6 seconds after the lady bug finished eating his friend. "Oh I should run."
When my parents had an aphids problem (when we were kids) my brothers and me would go around in our housing estate area and collect all the ladybugs we could find and put them on our tree so that they could eat the aphids
