Harlequin Beetle Invasion

[MarkPelican]

I guess I got my names slightly mixed. The harleqin ladybird is also known as the halloween beetle because of when it swarms.

[vixylix]

well, firstly I am glad I've never seen a harlequin beetle - eeew!

Secondly, we've had loads of ladybrids around this weekend - I can't even remember the last time I saw one and I must have seen 50+ this weekend. How can I tell which are the good guys and which are the bad guys (the harlequins). My google search seemed to imply they hadnt made it this far north, but they definitely didnt look like normal ladybirds to me.

[sparrow100]

I have quite a few making determined forays towards the 'warmth' of my double glazing. They are all harlequins - I get a few natives, but not that many.

[Nafets]

for the last few years we have hundreds hibernating in the bedroom window frames each year. When you open the window they all just fall into the room. The wife hates it but keeps the spiders fed

[purplekat]

Harlequins are larger than most other ladybirds, and have brown legs. Our normal ladybirds have black legs.

We've had large accumulations here for the last few years (hundreds and hundreds on the walls under trees) but never seem to see many the year after, so I think a lot are dying over winter (or possibly staying up in the trees). The mild winter last year seems to have resulted in a bumper year for them. If we get our forecast cold winter then hopefully that should kill a lot off. Found them in the windowframes today.

[Jungle Jane]

The black harlequin ladybirds look similar to our black two spot ladybirds & the kidney spot ladybirds,it's difficult to know if they're a harlequin or not with just a couple of millimetres difference in size. You can double check on this ladybird ID chart,once you know it's definitely a harlequin through examination do you destroy it because it's a pest & harmful to our ladybirds? Driving them somewhere out of town would be less murderous but wouldn't solve the problem that they are? I did kill one a couple of years ago,I did an ID check on it first to be 110% sure,just put it in a glass & investigate it,this year I found one but I left it in my garden I'm probably going to have loads next year I don't know? Should we try to limit their numbers,because that one harlequin would have babies that have babies,eating our native ladybirds to survive on the way,they're in a similar unwanted category to cabbage white caterpillars,but it feels mean because it is nature but so are slugs? So I don't know what to do anyway but it feels mean but is it?
Here is one ladybird ID webpage-
http://www.ladybird-survey.org/downl...2006_v.1.3.pdf

[vixylix]

I relocated one that I was sure was a ladybird to my garden -the one that I wasn't sure about I blew off the front door and left it to fend for itself. I couldnt bring myself to kill a ladybug