A ladybug landing on you
A ladybird landing on you brings good luck, and you should not brush it away.
Animals superstition
Ladybug superstitions
Ladybug superstitions: good luck; the number of spots predicts months of luck or a wish granted. First recorded: Medieval Europe; the name refers to the Virgin Mary. That makes it somewhere between 500 and 1,500 years old — joint 29th oldest of the 45 superstitions we have dated.
- Earliest record
- Medieval Europe
- Written down in
- 1867 Harland and Wilkinson, Lancashire
Record: John Harland and T. T. Wilkinson, Lancashire Folk-Lore (London: Frederick Warne, 1867).
When it actually starts
How old is this one
First recorded
Medieval Europe; the name refers to the Virgin Mary
That makes it
somewhere between 500 and 1,500 years old
Rank by age
Joint 29th oldest of 45 dated here
Category
Animals
Farmers noticed that ladybirds appearing on crops coincided with aphid damage stopping, and credited divine help — the "lady" in the name is Mary. The causation was real, the attribution was not.
Why it stuck. One ladybird eats up to 5 000 aphids in its life, so the crop really was saved. This is a superstition built on a correct observation with the wrong explanation.
28 of the dated superstitions here were written down earlier and 12 later, while 4 share its date.
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Primary source
As it was written down in 1867
“Lady-bird, lady-bird, eigh [hie] thy way home, Thy house is on fire, thy children all roam; Except little Nan, who sits in her pan, Weaving gold laces as fast as she can.”
John Harland and T. T. Wilkinson, Lancashire Folk-Lore (London: Frederick Warne, 1867) — read the original text.
The ladybird rhyme as children said it in Lancashire and Yorkshire in 1867 — an early form of “Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home”.
The versions people follow
What exactly is believed
Counting the spots
The number of spots is said to be the number of months until luck arrives — or the number of children you will have.
Love and weddings
A ladybird on a young woman's hand foretells marriage, flying in the direction of her future husband.
Our Lady's bird
The name comes from the Virgin Mary: medieval farmers credited the beetles with saving crops from pests.
Where it lives today
The farmers were right about the pest control: ladybirds eat aphids and are released by gardeners and growers as natural insecticide.
What people say
Good luck; the number of spots predicts months of luck or a wish granted.What is going on
Spot count indicates species, not fortune — the seven-spot is simply the most common European one.Where it applies. Positive across Europe and North America, which is unusual: almost every other animal omen reverses somewhere.
Nearest in age
Ladybug superstitions are joint 29th oldest of the 45 dated superstitions here. Of those, 3 date from 1900 or later and 14 predate the common era.
First-recorded dates are the earliest documented appearance in written sources, not the earliest possible origin — an unrecorded practice can be older. How the dating works and where it is uncertain →
Sources
Statements of fact on this page were checked against these sources in October 2026. How we choose and check sources: editorial policy.
Cite this page
AstroHot. “Ladybug Superstitions: Origin, Meaning and When It Began.” Accessed October 29, 2026. https://astrohot.com/superstitions/ladybug/
For Wikipedia
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