A plague of ladybirds

[HappyLittleLentil]

Has anyone got a plague of ladybirds in their area? There are a few hundred in my garden - on the clothes line, the walls, garden bench. Loads of little spots on these too!

Loads around at the minute but they’re more of an orange/red colour with lots of spots. Started noticing them a couple of years ago when they were absolutely all over. Noticed a black mark in the corner of my kitchen ceiling and when I investigated there were loads of them all huddled together. My neighbour had the same. We’re in West Yorkshire.

JustCleaningtheBBQ · Yesterday 21:29

Judashascomeintosomemoney · Yesterday 18:27

It’s not a plague, it’s officially a Loveliness of Ladybirds. 🐞

Nothing lovely about the type we’ve got.

Apparently they are harlequin ladybirds and pretty invasive. Not necessarily a good thing for native ones.

They sound like harlequin ladybirds, which come in many different colour morphs incl black with two or four big red spots, and red/orange with numerous smaller black spots. A non-native and invasive species, unfortunately (preys on native ladybirds).

They’ve all clearly decided it’s winter and time to hibernate. I went upstairs yesterday afternoon and one bedroom and bathroom had at least 50 in each. I painstakingly put them all outside (twice as they kept coming back in), but last night was woken up by one on my neck. Yuck. Stinky fuckers.

I would never kill one as I know they do great work, but go and winter in the shed or the greenhouse or the wood store please!

They've started to accumulate around our window frames indoors. Apparently they emit a scent trail for other ladybirds to follow.

Having bought some online in the spring to deal with the black fly invasion in my garden I'm hoping to overwinter them. I read that if you put them in a shoe box with some foliage and air holes they can survive hibernation in a greenhouse. So that's what we'll be doing.

Cluster flies are vile. Opened an attic window the other day and dozens flew in before I could close it again.

Read this thread the other day and felt grumpy as I almost never see a ladybird in my (north east) garden. But, lo, I went outside just now and there were dozens of ladybirds crawling on the front of the house. Slightly odd ones. Black with a couple of red spots; and red with over a dozen black spots.
Am thrilled. Love the little beasties.

Yes! Apple tree covered in them yesterday!

We had quite a few yesterday in Cardiff, and friends who live in the Llanharan had clouds of them.

Seen loads of butterflies!

This is what it's like in my area today. I was initially worried that they were wasps or bees but I've never seen so many ladybirds.

Unfortunately not the Ladybirds we want - they smell, spread nasty disease and bite https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/harlequin-ladybirds-attack-invasion-ladybug-united-kingdom-infest-houses-native-species-pest-hibernate-a8571671.html

They’re bimbling all over my windows, in Durham, but not quite in the numbers in some of these pics 🐞

Was just about to post this - we had loads at work end of last summer.

Jury is out as to whether they are a threat to native species.

Harlequins were introduced from Japan as pest control...

https://www.rhs.org.uk/biodiversity/harlequin-ladybird

In what sense are they a plague? What harm do they do?

I'm quite close to you and haven't seen one. 🙁
I'm convinced it's the unseasonable warmth weather though, it's like spring today ☀️

Same, only thing I'm afraid of

Ah, ok, I see that mine are the baddy ladybirds.

Why is everything so bleak these days. I just want to be happy about ladybirds

If that happens, humans won't last long.

That RHS page says "Unfortunately it is not possible to discourage the ladybirds from entering buildings" but surely it is a KNOWN FACT that you can discourage them by saying

Ladybird, ladybird
Fly away home
You house is on fire
Your children alone

It always worked a treat when I held was a child

Yes, hundreds of them in Shropshire - all trying to get into the house. Whenever you open a window (in this unseasonably warm weather) they cluster in the windows.

The eleventy thousand that I carefully removed yesterday have all come back, with their mates this time. Many of them have secreted themselves in a completely inaccessible area behind the bathroom shutters, making a sinister dark red blob.

The only way I can extract them is with the nozzle on the vacuum cleaner, but I don’t want to do that in case it kills them.

I guess they are now our winter guests 🤷‍♀️

We now have a blob too, in my dh’s office. Luckily it is accessible so we plan to make a shoebox with holes for them to hibernate and try and move them into there.

literally never seen anything like it! But weirdly a friend who many years ago lived almost next door, said it was a yearly occurrence for her when she lived there. Always early October. We are next to a little woodland which is probably a factor.

Yes!

Hundreds here in Dorset, Harlequin type.