Plague of Ladybirds !!!

Yesterday afternoon I looked out of the window and all over my balcony and the balcony glass in fact everywhere there were Ladybirds. They suddenly appeared and kept appearing for an hour, settling, walking around, flying off, re appearing it was extraordinary - I just wish it had happened in the middle of the summer when my green fly problem was at its height! I got a jam jar and gently pushed about 30 or 40 into it and then pushed some leaf with green fly on it into the jar. It didn't really have the desired effect probably because they were rather shocked at being captured! I then let them go to join their friends again.I couldn't possibly have counted how many there were but it was well into the hundreds possibly 300-500! They remained there in large numbers well into the night and this morning there are still quite a lot left, most of which are now on my plants. Has anyone ever heard of or seen this before because I haven't and if anyone knows about it can they tell me why it happens and for what reason. In addition to the Ladybirds I have a very large resident spider (name unknown) who delighted in this deluge of readily available food, She has attached her web to the outside of the balcony glass but lives under the actual balcony rail. You can see from the photos that she already had one in her deadly clutches and was about to go in for pudding.I would much appreciate any information on both the Ladybirds and the spider - sorry about the number of pictures but I became very over excited!


[ 27. October 2005, 01:39 PM: Message edited by: Charlie ]

 

Hi Charlie, I do seem to remember something similar happening I think it was something to do with a surge of greenflies. Your spider photos are really good.

 

lucky you :D
Maybe you should put a few ladybird homes around your garden to give them somewhere to hibernate and maybe they will reappear a bit earlier in the season next year.
I'm sure I've seen bundles of chopped up bamboo canes 'marketed' as ladybird or hoverfly homes. I have to admit I've been very unlucky this year. We've had hardly any ladybirds this year compared to the last few years.

Good Luck
Sue :D :D

 

I wonder if this warm weather has bought them out. You know that feeling when you get up in the morning and feel you haven't slept long enough.

 

Hi Charlie, I've never seen anything like this either. The spider photos are amazing. I thought ladybirds had set numbers of spots according to species, but yours seem to be different, also in size!
This mild weather means most of my fuschias are still out, how are yours? Temperature hasn't dropped below 2degC except for once at the end of August!

 

Thanks Liz,
My Fuschia had about 3 or 4 flowers left and didnt look like any more were going to come and a lot of the leaves had fallen off and most were going yellow so I've given it the chop. Cut it right back. I'm in a bit of a quandry because at the moment its in a hanging basket which now looks pretty bare - I may remove it and put it in a holding pot - what do you think

 

Thanks Marley
You are right that BBC site gives an indication that when they swarm they go higher which would explain the reason why they came to my balcony but it doesnt say why they swarm. What does worry me is that one of the Ladybirds in my photos is identical to the Asian species that they are all so worried about - have a look and compare the pictures - perhaps I should report it.

 

Hi Charlie,
A couple of those lady birds do look like the asian one, don't they? I hadn't heard of this one before. I had a gardening friend in cambs. who was sensitive to ladybirds, his hands went pink and itched- I hope he doesn't come across these!
If you pot up your Fuschia for the winter, you will then have to put something more interesting in your basket. I keep ivies in odd pots round my garden to put in baskets in winter, and supplement them with tiny bulbs, cyclamen, pansies etc,which don't take up yoo much room during summer.Or you could have a dwarf shrub in the centre. Bearing in mind your lack of space, has anyone else any good ideas?
I'm sure the fuschia won't mind, just make sure it's wrapped with fleece, newspaper. or whatever if we have the threatened cold weather. I find the usual time I lose things is after they start shooting again in feb/march, and then are cut back by a later frost, so watch out for new growth and protect that too.

 

Nearly 30yrs ago we were on holiday in wales when there came a swarm of ladybirds. They were in our hair/clothes/bags everywhere. In the bottom of the shop windows they were layers deep.
It was really bad.We drove to other places a little further up the coast to try to get away from them for a while but they had them too.
This went on for two days, then they were gone as suddenly as they came. We thought at the time maybe it was the very hot weather we were having.
As they'd given out on the radio to watch dogs and keep douncing them with water as some were behaving eratic.

 

I recall such a swarm in Lowestoft in 1973. The air was thick with them - thousands of them! All in people's hair and all over their clothes. And they were swarming all over the light coloured cars but not the black and other dark colours! It lasted a whole day then about six weeks later we had a swarm of black fly that was even worse and the scum on the kiddie's paddling pool and the boating pond was millions of black fly that had come to grief in the water!

 

Yes in the 70s we had swarms of them everywhere they completely covered cars everything it was unbelievable how many there where.Then gone as suddenly as they came

 

I've now found out having taken part in the ladybird survey a lot more about them. There are 47 resident species in the UK - The Harlequin is the big threat and I had a lot of them on my balcony - all identified by the survey people. Its worth a look at the site http://www.harlequin-survey.org
and then follow the links to the Uk Ladybird survey website and on the left of the page you can get links to photos of them - its amazing - you can also download a pdf fact sheet rather like those bird or flower ones you get.
I also ID'd a Orange Ladybird that I took a photo of earlier this year in fact some of you may have seen it as I did post it on the forum.
Any way thanks to all of you for your input and special thanks to Marley Farley who found the original BBC site

 

Surprisingly we haven't seen many ladybirds this year at all.