I absolutely agree with all the above comments - first thing I looked for was a pic of the larvae. I have seen them in the past at my previous house and watched them hatching out when I had no idea what they were. It was absolutely fascinating to see the pale ladybirds come out and see them darkening and the spots appearing in the sun. Worth a video I would have thought. The larvae looked very peculiar like little tiny crinkly wizened pipes fastened to my brick wall in the sunshine. I very nearly brushed them off with my broom but something made me wait and watch. Im so glad I did. Have seen very few ladybirds this year native or harlequin. Strangely not so many greenfly or whitefly either tho plenty of blackfly on the elderflowers in next door's garden and on my tall thistles.
Well, I got so fed up of waiting for a photograph on this page, that I googlesd it. Now I've seen that, thankfully I know that i've not squashed any in my garden.
I have never seen as many aphids in my garden as I have this year. I like to garden organically but the temptation to use chemical to exterminate these viracious pests has been overwhelming at times. Until just last week I have not seen a ladybird in the garden...having 'googled' what I thought was a harlequin ladybird I squished it....there are so many variants I may have squished one of the good guys iby mistake. If anyone has any spare good guys, please send them my way.
I live in Seamer, near Scarborough in North Yorkshire, and I have not seen a single ladybird so far this year.My friend has had a greenfly problem in his greenhouse and we went on a dedicated ladybird hunt to deal with the problem. Not one ladybird, and this in a garden of over one acre!! Is this only in this area or is there a general decline. it is very worrying that this beneficial insect seems to have dissapeared completely around here.
Pippa,it's not much use that you have written about the ladybird larvae,have retained my interest by your excellent writing but then you do the sin of 'not showing us a photograph of the subject matter..
Like every one else I know what a ladybird looks like but have no idea what it's pupa looks like. pretty silly to write about protecting them without a picture!
Thanks for all of your comments, and apologies for the initial lack of an image! We've updated the post to include some external links to images of ladybird pupae - we hope you find them useful.
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Thanks for all of your comments, and apologies for the initial lack of an image! We've updated the post to include some external links to images of ladybird pupae - we hope you find them useful.
Regards,
Daniel
The Gardeners' World web team