Ladybug Tea

If you live in the midwest...and maybe other parts of North America...you know that the first few warm days of spring bring on the ladybugs.

I call them ladybugs. I'm sure that is not their technical name but if I ask Brian what the technical name is he'll give me the 10 minute kingdom, phyllum, genus, species report and I just don't feel like it right now. So....for our purposes in this post they will be referred to as ladybugs.

These little buggers can get in the tiniest holes and then climb to the far reaches of a room and pile on top of each other in the corners. When you've got 20 foot ceilings, like I do, it's a problem.
You can vacuum them up every day (if you can reach them) but they just keep coming back.

They fly around and bounce off of the lights all evening and in the morning they are covering the floors and counters. And, on top of that, they give off a horrible smell when threatened or frightened. Oddly enough they find the vacuum cleaner to be both frightening and threatening. As well they should.

In short...they are a nuisance!!

But, amazingly they don't taste bad.

My cat and dog eat them all the time and my toddler snacks on them occasionally too.

I always thought they (the pets and toddler) were crazy, but as it turns out their flavor isn't as potent as their odor.

As Brian made my tea one evening he remarked, "Eww, I've got to empty this water out. There are like 5 ladybugs floating in here. You really ought to keep the spout covered on this teapot."

The funny thing is I had already made 3 cups of tea with that water that day and hadn't noticed anything odd about it at all.

So all you adventerous tea addicts out there, give it a whirl. Ladybug tea! Who knows it may be good for the memory or relieving joint stiffness or regrowing hair? If only it straightened spines I would be harvesting those little babies like you wouldn't believe.

Please don't ever drink tea made of insects (dead or living) without the expressed written consent of Major League Baseball a medical professional.

For other (more inspiring and helpful) ideas go to Rocks in My Dryer.