Ladybirds

paula

We have had swarms of them here.  All coming in from the sea.  Not just ladybirds either.  Hover flies and other things I'm not sure about .  There are some messages somewhere else about them.

If you do see a ladybird, its always worth a second look at them. Believe it or not, but there are 23 native species in Britain, plus the harlequin ladybird which is doing its very best to invade. I was sat out in a park today (working, honest!) and had at least 3 different species land on me all at once.

Hi Paula
I have been having quite the opposite ladybird experience this year, having encountering moe than I can remember in recent years. Also, dare I say it only one harlequin which is very much down on the past two years for me!

While I'm not knocking the idea of getting a ladybird and lacewing box, you can have more fun making your own and recycling some materials at the same time. They are dead easy to make and you can find instructions at: http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/gardening/insects/index.asp

Even more important is how you manage your garden, by providing a variety of different species of tree, shrub and flower, cutting the woody vegetation on a rotation so that it's all different ages, heights and shapes and above all keeping plenty of dead wood about in the garden will provide lots of natural places and habitats for things like ladybirds and lace wings.

If you've not already done so, try signing up to Homes for Wildlife and see what else you can do for wildife in the garden. It will give you plenty of advice on creating the right structure of vegetation and providing deadwood. Find out more and register here: http://www.rspb.org.uk/hfw

John

Hi John

Thank you for your great information about Ladybirds, and all other replies too.

It is strange that Ladybirds are not around so much recently, and people have noticed their absence as they have mentioned on this Forum..

In the last week we have found 2 seven spot ones flying about the garden, and this morning we had another 7 spot sitting on the window in the car on our way to the shop today.

Ladybirds are very slow to appear this year - wonder why?.  I feel that the hotter/humid weather will have brought out a lot more of their favourite food stuff - hmm...

Not seen any Harlequin Ladybirds yet this year, and I know of people who have seen them already so they are around.

Regards

Kathy and Dave

Oh John, such a wealth of information I feel I may get lost! Thank you. I've registered on the Homes for Life website and will pay more attention once the ospreys have departed and I have a bit more time to devote on it.

Last year we had loads of ladybirds, noticeably loads. This year hardly any.

Hi Paula,  I must say I haven't seen any ladybirds in my garden at all this year and also no black fly or green fly either for that matter.

Being that Ladybirds are such good pest controllers and eat them I wonder if that is why they have been missing from here at least ?

I live near Southampton Hampshire.

We spent Christmas in Basingstoke with my son and daughter-in-law, I was watching a squirrel through the bedroom window, opened it and minutes later what must have been a few hundred ladybirds flew in, now I love them but seeing so many on the bed and in the room was quite a shock, some seemed to swarm in one corner. My son came in and we carefully as possible scooped them up and took them to the summerhouse. They aparently were over wintering in between the window and frame, even though the windows were in good repair. Wish I had thought to take a photo because it was really strange to see them at Christmas time.

But at home this Summer we have seen very few, but our honeysuckle has had a serious blackfly infestation, luckily only a dahlia had a few but managed to wipe them off with a tisue and then spray with a washing up liq.   We live about 5 miles from Blackpool.

Lorraine A said:

Hi Paula,  I must say I haven't seen any ladybirds in my garden at all this year and also no black fly or green fly either for that matter.

Being that Ladybirds are such good pest controllers and eat them I wonder if that is why they have been missing from here at least ?

I live near Southampton Hampshire.

Hi Lorraine, that's a good point about the blackfly and greenfly as I have only seen one ladybird this year (I live in South Bucks) and hadn't realised until you mentioned it but my garden is not suffering its usual plague of BF and GF either. Incidentally, a couple of weeks back OH and I went to Woburn Safari Park and, despite all the flowers and foliage, we didn't see any ladybirds there either.

i am in north surrey plenty of them this year all sizes and colors i.ve been bitten by some so be careful