Where Are All The Ladybirds?

I'm getting a bit worried about the missing ladybird population this year, I've seen just one or two all year so far and one of them was a harlequin!!!

Last year even during the, shall we say, slightly damp summer we had hundreds of them here, the laurel hedge on the front is usually covered in them, indeed often in what looks like plague proportions but not this year, nothing, nada, not a single one???!!

I garden in a way to attract wildlife and have seen an increase in butterflies, bees, hoverflies etc this year but no ladybirds, has anyone else noticed they've gone AWOL?

 

Good point! This is our first summer here in Derbyshire, but not a sign of them. Last year there weren't a lot either but there were some

 

All i've seen is one ladybird larvae...that was last week and today one ladybird landed on my shoulder and i nearly squished it thinking it was a flyit's quite worrying.....

 

Not seen any this year. And as you say last year I had loads in the garden.

Rusty

 

They're protecting their homes from this heat: they don't want any fires.

 

All the aphids are on my roses...

 

I haven't seen any yet. Last year they came out early, and I was relocating them to the poly on a regular basis to munch the aphids

 

I wonder if the late winter has had any effect on them? :(

 

Finally seen a ladybird and after googling turns out was a variety of 'harlequin' ladybird, this one had 4 red spots on a black body, quite a handsome little guy really. Anyway I introduced him to some aphids

 

Great news, Bilbo - I was getting quite worried, but, you've restored my hope

Could you send a few my way?

 

I'm guessing the really bad summers and cold winters have killed a lot of them off.

Bad winters have more effect on the predators than on the pests.
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Not seen many butterflies other than cabbage whites.

 

Plenty of butterflies here Pete, large whites, green veined whites, orange tips, red admiral, painted lady, speckled wood, comma, small tortoise shell, holly blue, peacock, meadow brown, ringlet and small copper all seen in our garden over the last couple of weeks

 

I too haven't seen a single one this year. The aphids are taking over in my garden!

 

Still seen no more ladybirds in my own garden but I was working in a garden last week and saw quite a few, not hundreds but at least it was more than just the odd one