Minnesota elementary school students released 72,000 ladybugs inside the Mall of America as a natural pesticide to protect the mall's plants. Known as the largest mall in the United States the Mall of America houses more than 30,000 live plants and over 400 trees.

The mall, located in Bloomington, Minnesota allowed third graders to release 72,000 ladybugs in the enclosed space which can hold the size of up to 7 Yankee stadiums inside of it.

The release of the some 72,000 ladybugs comes after the appearance of aphids inside of the mall. Aphids are insects that feed on plants however they have a natural enemy, the ladybug.

Rather than fumigate the mall with harmful pesticide the mall manager opted to release the large amount of ladybugs as a natural way to get rid of the aphids.

According to Inserbia.info ladybugs lay hundreds of eggs in the colonies of the aphids, when those eggs hatch the larvae immediately feed on the insects. In its three to six week lifespan a ladybug can consume as much as 5,000 aphids.

According to Discovery News the manager of the mall, Lydell Newby spoke about the release of the large amount of insects to a local news station believing that the release of the ladybugs was a wise idea, "Ladybugs are what I like to call, sort of a biological defense system."

Following the release of the ladybugs shoppers have voiced complaints about concerns of the insects flying onto their food to which a mall spokesperson said that the insects spend their time on plants not human food.

The ladybugs were released inside of the Mall of America on Earth Day. Check out the video of the release of the released ladybugs below.