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Ladybirds / Ladybugs

RaM

RaM

Justified & Ancient
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Mar 12, 2015
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Location
NW UK
Just reading the tread on caterpillars, it reminded me of a visit over 40 years back to I think
Lyme Park though I am not 100 sure of this, anyway all seemed normal on arrival but suddenly
the place was crawling with ladybirds, so many it was impossible to walk without standing on
hundred's of them, they are predators and kill aphids so are the gardeners friend, I was told
that there population reacts to the aphid population but just how so many could suddenly
appear I don't know, we abandoned our visit and like a lot of people had to crunch our way
out, it seemed a reasonably local thing and I have never seen the like before or since.
 
Ah, the great ladybird plague of ‘76.....I remember being taken on a school trip to London that summer where the teachers literally just abandoned us for the day to merrily wander around the city to our hearts content until it was time to go home! Billions of ladybirds seemingly on every available surface....very odd phenomena but not as odd as supposedly responsible adults deserting their pupils the way that they did.....in between accidentally squishing hundreds of ladybirds me and my mate went to check out the legendary fleshpots of Soho.......it was incredibly boring but at least we didn’t get kidnapped and buggered for our efforts!
 
RaM said:
but just how so many could suddenly
appear I don't know
Click to expand...

A female lays 10 to 50 eggs. Several generations a year. When the food supply is plentiful more of each generation survives to reproduce, and possibly more eggs are laid.

This means that they increase very very quickly.

A bit like the one grain of rice on a square of the chess board, 2 on the second square, 4 on the third and so on...
 
I also recall one year where they were so common that you couldn't really walk without crushing some. That was the 80s though.
 
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I was on a family holiday on the Isle of Wight in 1976 or whenever it was, and the ladybirds were falling out of the sky, dead. I remember going up Union Street in Ryde, which is quite steep, and seeing people sweeping them away from shop doorways and steps leading up to them. Strange times. Wasn't that the year when it was really hot, and the ground cracked up and the grass died ?

You've got to at least have a picture of some ladybirds in a thread like this. I think some of them look like they were invented for an episode of Dr Who.

Ladybirds.jpeg
 
I remember the great ladybird plague of ‘76. I recall them piling up in corners on the street.
 
Ladybird bite causes sepsis! There's a horror film in this story!

A bodybuilder who overcame sepsis after being bitten by a ladybird has won his first competition since doctors gave him a 30% chance of survival.

Reza Rezamand, 37, from Blythe Bridge, Staffordshire, was rushed to hospital in November 2016 after the bite on his foot triggered a reaction.
Antibiotics did not work and his foot swelled up and went black, he said.

He has now returned to competing and won at the Natural Bodybuilding Federation events in London.

"I'm getting stronger, my foot is a lot better, it is just the side effects of the medication I was on and we're still fighting those because it wasn't a nice experience, I can assure you [of] that," he said.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-59503617
 
I'll treat them with a bit more respect from now on.

:omr:
 
Did any of my fellow older Forteans experience a plague of cockchafers (*groans inwardly*) in the late Sixties?

Maybug.jpg


lt would have been between 1967 and 1970. We had so many droning around that my closest mate and l would stand behind my house with plastic rounders bats, knocking them out of the air. l have a dim memory of taking out over sixty in one afternoon.

Anyone?

maximus otter
 
Vardoger said:
First time I heard of Ladybirds biting at all. As a child we played with them and held them in our hands.
Click to expand...
When I lived in Scotland, I remember passing alongside a stone dyke about six feet tall, and on top of the wall I noticed this moving red ball - it was the size of a football, and was constructed of nothing more than thousands of Ladybirds. I read-up about them some time after, and found out that this is what they sometimes do to survive harsh winter conditions.
 
maximus otter said:
Did any of my fellow older Forteans experience a plague of cockchafers (*groans inwardly*) in the late Sixties?

Maybug.jpg


lt would have been between 1967 and 1970. We had so many droning around that my closest mate and l would stand behind my house with plastic rounders bats, knocking them out of the air. l have a dim memory of taking out over sixty in one afternoon.

Anyone?

maximus otter
Click to expand...
Yes. A whole load of these things showed up, banging against the windows. Probably 1970.
My Dad called them 'June bugs'.
 
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