Ladybirds

We hardly saw any last year, but when we lived in a house with old wooden sash windows the used to come inside when the weather started to get cold and then overwintered in the channels where the sash cords ran. I tried not to open the windows because they all fell out.
On winter days they used to come out to bask if the sun came out.

An orange one, only seen once in my garden.

I remember last year that my white front door and white window frames were absolutely covered in ladybirds. I had to brush them away before I could even open the door as they would all fly in.

Look up Harlequin ladybirds - there is a difference.

grannybuy

An orange one, only seen once in my garden.

Oh the orange one that bit me had black spots. I've never seen one like that grannybuy.

Will probably be shot here but I can’t stand them, ever since the hot summer of 1976 when we were plagued with them. I’m afraid to say I either put them out the window or if I can’t catch them, I hoover them up!

They're not ladybirds, they're beetles which can fly and bite. They've camouflaged themselves as ladybirds, little devils!

I remember the hot Summer of 1976. A plague of ladybirds , they were about 3” deep on walls especially on the coast, I was pushing my twins in their pram and the pram quilt was covered in them, I had to stop my twins from picking the up and eating them. !!

Harlequins are a non native species and aggressive towards our own native ones. Not a fan, I'll be honest. Pretty but unkind!

When ladybirds 'bite' they are seeking moisture on our skin. I don't think they have a sting as such. I remember a plague of aphids when we could have done with a plague of ladybirds. I was painting the kitchen and had to keep the window closed so as not to have greenfly adorning my freshly decorated walls.

Several years ago on a late warm summer early evening on the south side of our house (which was painted white) it was covered with thousands of ladybirds we had never seen anything like it before, they were the Harlequin ones..I recall.
For the next few years the little bugs appear inside the house, around the windows flying around upstairs drive us nuts.

We had a flush spotlight in a shower room fail, once opened to change the bulb hundred of dead ladybirds fell out, that light has never worked properly since.
It's only in the last couple of years that we don't get them in the bedrooms anymore, or many dead ones falling out of light fittings.
Still no idea why?

Ladybirds eat aphids both as larvae (ugly, black & voraceous eaters) and adults. They are a vital part of the natural control of many small pest species. We need to encourage them as much as possible to enable reduction of insecticide controls by gardeners. Look after your ladybirds and your aphids will disappear without treatment - cheaper!

Ladybirds are brightly coloured as they taste nasty to warn birds & other insect eaters to keep off.

We have seen almost no ladybirds for years in our garden near Dublin. One year they were everywhere, hundreds at a time in areas, then over the last three or four years, almost none.

I arrived a few years ago to my house in France only to find hundreds of ladybirds in the entrance hall. I was shocked n had to do my best to remove them. Eventually with doors open etc I thought I had got them out. The following morning I woke up with a badly swollen eye. The result of a ladybird bite! I’m never knew they could bite. Both the pharmacist and a local bee keeper said they do bite. They had obviously been in the hall over the winter months. My eye took some time to get better.

I like Ladybirds. One year the white wall outside was covered with them.,

Here in the Uk I am sure that Harlequins have to be reported to.......?

These are Harlequin ladybirds and native to this country.

They are from Asia and carry an STD which thankfully isn't passed onto humans.

I have been inundated with these for years now, literally invading our house, in the curtains, crawling through any gap possible, clusters and clusters of them in our garage and when you pick them up to get rid of them they smell totally and utterly disgusting. Even in my bedding when I bring off the line.

They are eating and killing our native ladybirds and the advise is to destroy them, I put them down the toilet. Nobody loves wildlife more than me and felt bad at first but hate the things now.

Only yesterday I got 12 out of the bathroom, grrrr......

Sorry should have said NOT NATIVE TO THIS COUNTRY.

The ones you’re finding indoors will have been inside all winter and are just waking up. They’ll find their way out soon enough.

I’ve lived in this house for over 30 years, surrounded by farmland and just once, last summer, they were swarming in their thousands all over the warm west-facing wall. Other light coloured and rendered houses in the village had them too, just that one day, and they weren’t all the same type. They didn’t find their way in and had gone by dusk. I wish I’d photographed them at the time, it was quite surreal!

Welshy
I remember sometime in that really hot summer in the 1970s
When ladybirds were all over the place and they were biting!
I think they were the good old fashioned British ones

JennyCee

Welshy
I remember sometime in that really hot summer in the 1970s
When ladybirds were all over the place and they were biting!
I think they were the good old fashioned British ones

JennyCee

I guess I was one of the lucky ones to have not been bitten in previous years. As I said I didn't even know that they did. I just thought they were these cute little flying things.

I didn’t know what Ladybirds were till I figured out they must be what we in the US call Ladybugs. The little red beetle with black dots on the shell? They are cute.

But not to be confused with what we call a similar looking insect - the Japanese Beetle. They are a tad larger, orangish-brown with little black dots on the shell - and they bite.

When we had a very warm weather spell I was plagued with 100’s of Boxelder Bugs hanging around my sunny garage. A few got in the house. Harmless.

I’m a catch and release person.

Sparklefizz, if they are the Harlequin sort, try to avoid squashing any of them because they leave a horrible smell behind them. If you succeed in encouraging them outside, make sure you clean where they've been because they leave a scent for other ladybirds to follow!

The last warm spell in October brings hundreds of ladybirds of several different varieties. They hibernate in the gap between the upvc opening and fixed parts of the windows and also in clumps in the conservatory on the ceiling. Today there were several black ladybirds looking for a way out into the warm sunshine and I saw a red one on a rose bush. . The frogs have already arrived in the pond as they do every year after the full moon in February. Perhaps spring is on its way.

We had this at our previous house, they hibernated in the bay window and started to emerge as it got warmer. It's nice to offer them a safe place until it's warm enough to fly away safely. Io ed having them.

Have been finding them in 2 of the bedrooms over the last couple of weeks, don't like them at all. Also get cluster flies which are a real problem.