I donāt remember that particular year but I saw something like it here in the early 90s they were everywhere and kept going into the boxes above everyoneās roller blinds, made for a horrible mess of squished ladybugs when people opened the blinds.
Iāve been battling insect pests for a few years now, refusing to use chemicals and just nematodes and predatory larvae of various insects. Finally, my efforts have paid off: my poor, wee damson, sticky with aphids and looking very sorry for itself the past 3 weeks or so, is currently smothered with ladybird larvae and adult ladybirds! They are all merrily chomping away and the stickiness is reducing. So chuffed š
That's so good.Ā I wish that would occur with my Cherry Stella, which ever since I planted it, it has been plagued by blackfly. I live in hope...maybe this will be the year.
Based in Sussex, I garden to encourage as many birds to my garden as possible.
I wonder why I don't remember any ladybirds swarming - perhaps it just didn't happen in the Bath area.
I remember the hot and dry summer of '76. I don't think the ladybird invasion happened where I was either (London and Sussex) but I do remember pictures of it, mainly West Country I think.Ā
I do actually think it's more complicated now with the Harlequins.Ā I don't think they were around then.
Based in Sussex, I garden to encourage as many birds to my garden as possible.
Our second son was born at the beginning of June 1976 and the weather then was quite cool. I can remember taking him to register his birth and having him wrapped up in the beautiful shawl my grandmother had knitted. It soon got much warmer and I think he spent most of the next 3 months with almost no clothes on at all. I can remember newspaper stories about the swarms of ladybirds but don't remember seeing them.Ā
@dappledshade - amazing. I came home one evening about a month back with Ā several lady birds feasting on the aphids on one of my roses and was watching them in awe.Ā
Wasnāt alive in 1976 but that sounds absolutely crazy! Maybe a potential prequel to Hitchcockās birds film?Ā
Iāve been battling insect pests for a few years now, refusing to use chemicals and just nematodes and predatory larvae of various insects. Finally, my efforts have paid off: my poor, wee damson, sticky with aphids and looking very sorry for itself the past 3 weeks or so, is currently smothered with ladybird larvae and adult ladybirds! They are all merrily chomping away and the stickiness is reducing. So chuffed š
Amazing! How did you get to this stage? I bought a couple of boxes of ladybird larvae off eBay last year, but tricky to apply the larvae accurately and at the right time of year/temperature, not to mention it can be expensive.Ā
I remember being on holiday in a caravan in Mablethorpe and the caravan being absolutely covered in ladybirds. I don't remember them biting though, and I don't remember it being hot particularly, just dry. Maybe I was more tolerant of heat then - I was coming up 10 years old so endless fine days was a grand thing and the drought was something that grownups worried about.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
Posts
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1204864/Plague-ladybirds-puts-families-flight-Holidaymakers-overrun-tens-millions-bugs.htmlĀ
Gardening in Central NorfolkĀ on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I do actually think it's more complicated now with the Harlequins.Ā I don't think they were around then.
I can remember newspaper stories about the swarms of ladybirds but don't remember seeing them.Ā