On 04/11/2010 21:59, Pam Moore wrote:
Has anyone any first hand experience of harlequin ladybirds?
A friend of mine has asked me to ask you for help on behalf of a
friend of hers.
This lady lives on the end of a row of houses in Bradford on Avon.
She is beseiged by the things, even getting in her house through open
windows. Nobody else in the row of houses has seen them.
Will the winter kill them off? Is there anything which can be done.
I've suggested they Google them but have not done so myself.
Help please?

Pam in Bristol


Hi Pam,

I don't really think there's much that your friend can do. The winter
may dispose of some but, clearly, many survived last winter's icy grip.

Perhaps I'm the only one out of step here, but I've ceased getting
terribly worried about them. The reasons?:-

1. They alledgedly eat *lots* of aphids, even more than our native LBs.

2. They alledgedly only eat 'our' LBs when there's nothing else (the one
thing that concerned me).

3. I've got enough aphids to feed both populations, esp. early summer.

4. We're prepared to *buy in* other non-endemic bugs to eat our pests,
but can't accept free ones!!?

5. Many proprietory poisons and even detergent-based deterents are
similarly non-selective and therefore kill good as well as bad insects,
but we're prepared to accept them .. and pay for them.

6. Evolution takes these natural events in its stride; my worrying won't
change that. Ergo: I don't worry.

Please don't think I'm making light of another's concern, but I have yet
to be persuaded that these new bugs are such a serious risk. I'm much
more concerned about our sick and threatened bees. I hope your friend
can see 'her' LB problem in a similar light.

I'm sure her LBs are coming into the house to shelter over winter. If
she really wants to kill them, she's got the perfect opportunity:~).

Spider






--
Spider
from high ground in SE London
gardening on clay