Texas Softball Freshman Eats Ladybugs Before Games as Personal Superstition

Hannah Wells, a freshman utility player for the University of Texas softball team, eats ladybugs as a good luck superstition before games. ESPN's Holly Rowe reported that sources in the Texas dugout informed her of the practice while the Longhorns played Tennessee on Monday at the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City.

Wells confirmed the report herself before boarding the team bus outside Devon Field after Texas's second win over Tennessee.

She said eating ladybugs "is a tradition" that dates back to when she was a kid growing up in Coahoma, Texas. "Then everyone on my high school team did it," she said. Wells' Coahoma Bulldogettes won three consecutive Texas 3A state championships in her final three high school seasons.

At the Women's College World Series, she collected four hits on Monday, including a two-run single off the wall in the fifth inning of the first game against Tennessee. Texas beat Tennessee twice to advance to the championship series against Texas Tech. Wells went 4-for-4 with a two-run single in the first game against Tennessee.

Alicia Bray, an entomologist and professor of biology at Central Connecticut State University, told ESPN that ladybugs are typically less than 30 mg. She stated that a pinch of table salt weighs more than a ladybird beetle and that one ladybug equates to probably less than one tenth of a calorie. Bray stated that ladybugs have defensive compounds in their blood that give a bitter or foul taste.

She noted there is little known nutritional value and cleared the habit of any likely negative effects besides a less than savory taste.