Reproductive cycles

[Jenny A]

Like everything else concerning biology there are physical constraints. For gestation the greatest physical constraint on how fast a gestation period can be is the ultimate size of the newborn. Starting from a single cell, it simply takes longer to grow larger organisms. Thus in general larger animals have longer gestation periods. However animals that live concealed underground or raise their young in nests or burrows give birth to initially smaller and less developed offspring and therefore have shorter gestation periods than animals who raise their offspring out in the open. Marsupials who raise their young in pouches for a extended development period after birth have extremely short gestation periods.

There are some other factors. Some species breed during one part of the year and then the embryo lies dormant for some time before resuming growth. These anomalies tend to result in offspring born at the peak season for feeding the particular species young. For a general discussion see:http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topi.../gestation; For a comparative chart of mammalian gestation periods see: http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/biology/...eriods.htm

Beyond these factors, evolution works on random mutations to existing animals rather than sculpting animals from whole cloth. Thus chance plays a role.

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Just saying I could do with about 10,000 or so fewer aphids.

If you're into biological controls....you can buy bulk ladybugs, lacewings, soldier beetles, or syrphid fly. There are some species of parasitic wasp that are even more effective....but that might be a step too far into cruelty, lol. Other times, managing any ants will solve your aphid issue (if they;re being tended). In prevention, you could manage nitrogen levels down to their bare minimum (high N favors aphid developement). Silver muclhes are, apparently, a legitimate repellent for reasons unknown but statistically present - and of course viscious culling, pruning...and believe it or not just spraying the plants vigorously with water will help control them (it;s rare that a dislodged aphid returns to the roost. They don't survive long on the ground.

All that said, if nothing else works. Burn your garden/lawn to the ground and start over....lol. Fucking aphids.

(just tossing all of that out there in case you'd been looking - just poisoning them is also an option...lol. That'd be what I would do, just poison the shit out of them and anything they ate or that ate them. Systemics. There are plenty of bugs in the world, they'll be back.)

I'm really just complaining to complain.

I stray vigorously with water, soapy water if I'm desperate. I haven't bought ladybugs for years. Mostly they were fun for the kids. Getting the good bugs to stick around is the main problem. I've found planting things that ladybugs like to eat when they can't get aphid is the best long term method for aphid control.