General Chat

A wet spring and increased foliage has attracted swarms of ladybirds to parts of the US state of Colorado.
Masses of ladybirds can be seen covering the walls of houses and entire trees, turning them red, in an isolated mountain region in Jefferson County.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8146572.stm

Do you remember the last one we had?

I do remember one SRS must have been about 1973? They were everywhere .

Could do with them now in the garden to get rid of all the greenfly!

xx

Hi all, my OH was only yesterday observing that we havn't seen one ladybird yet,, now we know they have all emigrated to the US.

Do you think that they would like our slugs??

Sadly our native ladybirds are on the decline as we have been invaded by an American variety who like to munch on our own dear little ladybirds...a bit like the grey squirrels killing off our Reds...bl***y Americans.

Hi Rose and Annina,

Rose, I thought it may have been later than that......was is 1976 or 77 because of the heat?

I like ladybirds...so useful. You don't see enough of them. A bit like bees at the moment.

Hi SRS No I remember it being then because i was working in the record shop in Somerset at the time so I was 16/17...1976 was THE hot summer, also remember that because my brother got married lol.

xx

The hot summer was 76 but we did have swarms of them in either the late eighties or early ninties...it was one year when we had a very hot summer up here in the north east...early nineties I think...they were everywhere...now i seldom see any.

The invasion I remember was 1976, I went on a day trip with my two youngest to Mablethorp, I think, and the beach was covered in them.

I do remember , in the early nineties, an invasion of flying black beetles.

We were at the Americana Country musical festival at Newark, they were a sodding pest, and got everywhere,seemingly attracted by the day-glo colours on the stalls advertising.

I have a large garden, and havn't seen any honey bees, or ladybirds, British or American.Plenty of slugs, though.

around earley 90s at wales .. the caravan site was swarming with them ..the rocks in front of the sea was orange so was the vans ..

I found a black ladybird today with just two creamy yellowy spots on it, at the mo it is residing in a plastic strawberry container still on the hazel leaf I found it on, when trimming the tree back a bit. I will let it go if it is an ok one but not if it is one of these dodgy ones that are killing our native ladybirds, we need all the help we can against the aphids around.
I have googled but not found much info on 'my' ladybird.

Lizx

The invasive Harlequin lady bird is three times the size of our native species,and can't really because of this be mistaken for our native ones although the colours can be alike in some cases.
Fred.

Well, my ladybird is back out on the bushes in the garden, I did take a photo so I can maybe identify it later on, it was rather cute lol!

Lizx

Copied and pasted an article from our local paper re ladybirds, suppose I will get slated for that now!

The picture in it looked very similar to the little crittur I put back in the hedge.

Lizx