ON THE WILD SIDE Visitors in spot of of bother
● IS your home one of the many that is “under attack” from the autumn invasion of ladybirds? Have you noticed little red or black blobs stuck to your doors, windows, walls, child…cat?
According to the news reports, the invaders are harlequin ladybirds from Asia which arrive in great swarms, wreak havoc and spread sexually transmitted infections.
It’s an incredible story and mostly true, but a few crucial details are missing.
We have nearly 50 species of ladybird in the UK, about half of which you could look at and say:
“Hey, that’s a ladybird”. The rest are much less recognisable.
Take the invaders, the harlequins. They are one of the most varied species in the world and come in an exceptionally wide range of colours including black with red or orange spots, red with black spots and orange with black spots. There are even plain red ones. In fact, size is a much better indicator of the species than colour.
Ladybirds hibernating in our homes is nothing new. Our most common winter lodger is the native two-spot ladybird which was hiding behind our chests of drawers long before the harlequins started to visit. Harlequins tend to come in vast numbers, yes, but ladybird population explosions that blackened everything in sight historically happened every 15 years or so! As for that STI? Yes, they carry a fungus and often, if you look closely, you can see a yellow “mushroom” growing out of their backs. So far there is no evidence this can be passed on to our native species and it certainly can’t be passed on to humans even if they bite you. That’s right, they bite. All ladybirds can bite but they have no reason to do so unless they are starving.
And did I mention that they are all aggressive and carnivorous predators who feast on smaller insects and meat?
The pretty name comes from, if you can believe it, the Virgin Mary. Farmers would pray that Our Lady would send down her red-mantled messengers to eat all the nasty aphids invading their crops…and that’s exactly what they did. Best not tell Mary that her namesakes are spreading STIs as she won’t be very happy.