Ladybirds

[Derbydal]

There seems to be a lot of lady birds on my plot this year as anyone else notice them ,also are baby ladybirds called chickens ? atb Dal.

[Jay-ell]

To tell you the truth I haven't been looking around your plot so I wouldn't have noticed.

There's loads on mine though - both the ladybirds and the larvae

[jackarmy]

think the Ladyboys are called chickens Dai ?

[veggiechicken]

Lots of Ladybirds here too..................and I'm a chicken.

[Penellype]

Loads of ladybirds here all year - all shapes and sizes, probably due to an abundance of aphids earlier in the year (some plants in my garden were literally coated in aphids). The most common ladybirds we have are the 7 spot (easier to see as they are bigger) but we do have the harlequins too, which are also big and have variable numbers of spots, and can be black with red spots or red/orange with black spots. Just recently the much smaller 2 spot ladybirds have also started to appear.

Ladybirds are always welcome, but the harlequins are imported from Asia and unfortunately eat the larvae of the native ladybirds as well as eating aphids.

[Small pumpkin]

Never seen a ladybird here. Apart from the ones I buy in as pest control. I'm very careful that they stay in the polytunnel.
We do have ladybirds up here, but not many.

[Jay-ell]

think the Ladyboys are called chickens Dai ?

I'm pretty certain that Ladyboys are something totally different.

[Guest]

I have a lot and seen quite a few larvae about but hard to tell if there are genuinely more as the wildlife increases year on year here. I think the previous owner used a fair amount of chemicals and there wasn't much of a range of plants. What I did notice the other day that there were a fair number of 2 spotted ladybirds not just harlequins.

[fishpond]

I saw a couple yesterday, she must have been to the pub and got drunk and he was pushing her home, bless!

[burnie]

Large numbers of insects of all types over here on the East coast, some welcome and a lot of aphids which are not so welcome in the garden. Comments on tv about lack of insects, the front of my car is covered, a lot less intensive farming up here thankfully.

[toomanytommytoes]

Got quite a few ladybird larvae in the greenhouse, mostly on the peppers and chillies. The eggs were probably laid when they were outside during the nice early spring weather. Found some more eggs that are just hatching, so a new generation of little helpers has arrived. Elsewhere in the garden I've seen them on the red campion, apple trees and strawberries. Lots of aphids around this year for them to gobble up.