On Thu, 04 Nov 2010 21:59:47 +0000, 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

I suppose it's evolution - one dominant species wiping out others as
has happened loads of times over the years. It's worth bearing in
mind, though, that Harlequins not only threaten the native ladybird
species but also butterflies and moths - they eat their eggs and
larvae. It was estimated in 2009 that Harlequins could threaten over
1000 native species in the UK - I think there are only between 40 and
50 native ladybird species!

You could visit http://www.harlequin-survey.org/ and record the
sightings there.

At this time of year they will look for somewhere warm to hibernate
and as heat escapes from a house through the smallest of gaps, they
will follow the heat trail to that small gap and in they come. On the
occasional dry day, we've got the windows open to air the house a bit
and we notice that they only come in through windows at the front of
the house (FWIW facing west) and often in large numbers; they never
come through windows on the sides or back. Don't know why but the
reason why your friend's friend is the only one affected in her row
may be similar.

That said, we don't kill them, just scoop (or shovel) them up and put
them back outside. Nothing we can do is going to stop their spread
(without doing even more damage) so it's a case of let nature take her
course.