Ladybird invasion

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Rezillo

TwoSheds
Location
Suffolk
Our garden is currently crawling with thousands of ladybirds. Haven't seen so many since the 1960s when there were clouds of them in Norfolk.

They are mainly on the walls warmed by sunlight but are flying around in numbers and I have to keep brushing them out of my hair. There are at least three different types (black spots on red, red spots on black and multiple black spots on red).
 

roley poley

Über Member
Location
leeds
same in Leeds yesterday.... maybe using the last days of sunshine to find a spot to overwinter
 

iluvmybike

Über Member
They do swarm a bit at this time of the year - they are looking for somewhere safe to hunker down for the winter - they go dormant until spring. When they re-awake in spring they'll go off hunting for food and a mate. Sometimes you will get quite a lot inside your house if you leave windows open on the warmer autumn days. And often youll find them on the undersides of window sils and oterh nooks and crannie around you house. They are completely harmless and to be welcomed as they will gobble up the aphids infesting your plants come springtime
 
D

Deleted member 1258

Guest
Our garden is currently crawling with thousands of ladybirds. Haven't seen so many since the 1960s when there were clouds of them in Norfolk.

They are mainly on the walls warmed by sunlight but are flying around in numbers and I have to keep brushing them out of my hair. There are at least three different types (black spots on red, red spots on black and multiple black spots on red).

Lucky you! I could do with a few down here to slow down our aphid population.
 
OP
OP
Rezillo

Rezillo

TwoSheds
Location
Suffolk
Lucky you! I could do with a few down here to slow down our aphid population.

There must be a good supply of aphids close to hand, I guess - I've never seem so many here and we've been at this house for more than 25 years. We're out in the Suffolk prairie countryside and at the moment, we are surrounded by, instead of the usual sugar beet and wheat fields, many acres of sweetcorn and parsley (there's a herb processor a few miles away). At least it's not as bad as greenfly swarms, where you end up breathing them in.

[edit] A sample count of a small area of our living room window indicates there are several hundred on that one window.
 
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raleighnut

Legendary Member
Our garden is currently crawling with thousands of ladybirds. Haven't seen so many since the 1960s when there were clouds of them in Norfolk.

They are mainly on the walls warmed by sunlight but are flying around in numbers and I have to keep brushing them out of my hair. There are at least three different types (black spots on red, red spots on black and multiple black spots on red).
Yep I remember that, we were on holiday in 'Wells next the Sea'
 

Juan Kog

permanently grumpy
I remember a holiday with my parents in in the early 60’s in Suffolk . My Mums from Suffolk , So holidays involved visiting elderly relatives who spoke funny . One day visiting a very elderly great Aunt , my mum commented on the swarms of Ladybirds , my mums Aunt said “ yes my gardens full of Bishy barnbees“. An 8 year old me thought silly old bat . Years later I found out it’s an old Suffolk dialect word for Ladybirds .
 
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Tail End Charlie

Well, write it down boy ......
I get loads of them spending the winter in the gaps round my French Windows. Over the last couple of years I've let my grass grow longer in my field which helps ladybirds enormously and I have no aphid problem!
Making or buying bug hotels does also help with all sorts of beneficial insects using them.
 
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