In 1976 we had a very hot summer. I was 7 years old and remember it because there were thousands of ladybirds.
The ladybirds used to swarm and if I was outdoors they’d swarm over me! They’re pretty but they bite and you don’t really want them covering you from head to toe.
These ladybirds were in the garden, it looks like they over-wintered there and are just awaking from hibernation since the weather warmed up. I didn’t have my camera to hand so improvised with the camera on a Nokia Lumia. The results were better than I expected.
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They worked out just fine. Once again “good enough” is exactly that 🙂 No such thing at my end, though. We still have snow on the ground although it is warming up.
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I am in awe of your country and the people like you who live there. It’s stunningly beautiful yet so harsh an environment at times, perhaps more suitable for bears and wolves than us fragile humans. Yet you live there and seem to be at one with the land, the seasons and all that nature has to bring. Meanwhile on small islands like this one people struggle if there’s an inch of snow or a few extra hot days. Somewhere it’s seems we lost our ability to be at one with the land and I think that’s a great shame. I’m looking forward to more photos as spring starts to creep into Newfoundland 🙂
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We call them “lady bugs” here and I love them, too. The larva are really interesting looking, too, like little black and orange alligators.
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Yes, the larva do look like alligators! I haven’t seen any yet, maybe a bit early for them but judging by the number of adults there should be a lot of larva later in the year which is good because they’d eat aphids
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They are very cute (but I didn’t know they bite!) Yikes xxx
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They do, not as bad as the Harlequin type but enough to put a 7 year old off being covered in them!
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I buy ladybird larvae (native not harlequin) through the post if I get aphids in the polytunnel as they devour them voraciously. They are amazing to watch and look like mini armoured dinosaurs 🙂
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I don’t know if you’ve seen “Under the Tuscan Sun”, but this reminds me of a scene where one of the eccentric characters compares chasing happiness to the futile exercise of looking for lady bugs. Once you give up the search and fall asleep in the field, you wake up covered in them. Love that film!
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I haven’t seen it, will have to find it… I would definitely wake up covered in them!
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