Mass Swarms of Ladybugs literally turn town red!

Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the home of the lakefly. Tiny creatures come up off the lake in whirlwind swirls and turn the sky black around you. The buzzing makes everyone crazy. The kids devise bee bonnet headgear with hats and mesh to get themselves to school through them. The flies die and pile up like snow and have to be shoveled from the porch. This can last a whole week, twice a year

reply to post by m khan


I suppose an awesome city name can't resolve all plagues.

I would start checking into any factories in your area; I suspect some slave-labour/chosen people to be the cause.

Just let them go, man.

I've seen that before in person in southern Illinois. Happens every year that I can remember, usually only for a month or so.

I've always believed that nature always evens itself out. How many mass extinctions has the earth sustained? At least one of those times almost all live got wiped out. As you can see, life is still here.

It happened one time where i live on the south west coast of the UK about 12 yrs ago. millions of them turned up for 1 day.. was very odd.

Too much or too little of anything aint good news.

GTG (20090714)

i dunno where this has taken place, exactly, but i did watch an old BBC (probably) documentary about insect migration a couple of weeks ago. there was a segment that talked about ladybird migration in california during the summer. as the summer progresses and the heat rises, the ladybirds fly straight upwards and catch a ride on the prevailing wind which blows them into the mountains where they spend the winter. when the wind changes they fly up again and catch the wind back to the valleys.

i remember seeing the trees covered in the documentary the way the tree in the youtube video was. if this is california, that might be what this is.

[edit on 13/7/09 by pieman]

Awesome, I was wondering where all my lady birds went this year.

I usually have a lot of them out and about my garden this time of year, but have only seen a few. hmmm to think of it I don't think I have seen any praying mantis either, and I usually have a good number of those as well.

Plenty of wasps though, but not as many honey bees again this year, I keep noticing every year less and less of them.

Thanks for showing us this, amazing and beautiful.

Harm None
Peace

I live in Colorado and just learned of this today actually. I haven't seen anything in my city like this yet, but it's definately weird. We'll have to keep track of it! Thanks for the thread.

Amazing! If these people had any clue they would know that ladybugs are worth way more than their weight in gold. Industrial garden suppliers would pay a fortune for what they have. In the video alone I would estimate well over a million dollars worth of ladybugs.

reply to post by Yummy Freelunch


This species is called the Lady Bird beetle,and we have the same problem here in Iowa after the Harvest. They were imported from Asia over free trade. They are a lady bug impostor. They also stink,bite and are extremely annoying for around 2 weeks.

If you get an unusually mild winter, this is what happens. In a cold winter, most are killed off, and you don't get huge swarms. It's nothing unusual, just the way nature works. Some years you get population explosions, and some years you don't.

reply to post by Yummy Freelunch


I was stationed at Holloman AFB in new mexico in the late 1970's.
I took my wife for a drive up into the mountians to visit Sun Spot.
It is a large white pillar building located on a nearby mountion top.

When we arrived the power looked like it had 1 to 2 foot of rust along the inside corners of the pillars.

As we approched it.
We realized that they were millions of Lady Bugs.
At the base of the pillar they were over a foot deep.

Sence then we have learned to use them in farming in the place of chemicals.

So we have added many to the natural population of areas in the US.

Watcher

reply to post by Yummy Freelunch


I was stationed at Holloman AFB in new mexico in the late 1970's.
I took my wife for a drive up into the mountians to visit Sun Spot.
It is a large white pillar building located on a nearby mountion top.

When we arrived the power looked like it had 1 to 2 foot of rust along the inside corners of the pillars.

As we approched it.
We realized that they were millions of Lady Bugs.
At the base of the pillar they were over a foot deep.

Sence then we have learned to use them in farming in the place of chemicals.

So we have added many to the natural population of areas in the US.

Watcher

These swarms are common in the foothills of Calif

bss.sfsu.edu...

ladybugs migrate from the central valley of Calif up into the foot hills every year.
These swarms are harvested by collectors for sale to gardeners and and farmers some of these collectors make over a $1000 a day in the spring.

This harvest helps the ladybugs by eliminating there migration to the areas where they are needed.
Right after the migration down to the valleys is when the lady bugs lay there eggs and eliminating the losses of the migration means more ladybugs to eat Aphids and other garden and farm pest so less pesticides are needed.

This is not some thing caused by global warming or any other man made cause but a natural migration.

Originally posted by ANNED
These swarms are common in the foothills of Calif

This is not some thing caused by global warming or any other man made cause but a natural migration.

Cool!

Thinking that they migrate.

For such a small being.
The energy needed must be increadable....


Watcher

I remember back in 2000 or 2001. Ann Arbor, Michigan. Ladybugs everywhere. There were gobs and gobs of them in my apartment. They were everywhere. Better ladybugs than locusts. By the way, someone told me back then they weren't actually ladybugs, but some species of Japanese beetle.

box elder bugs they swarm this time every year

No, these weren't box elder bugs. "Asian Lady Beetles". Just looked it up.

en.wikipedia.org...

interesting... reminds me of when the lovebugs invade here... happens like twice a year. nothing worse than lovebug juice on your car, eats the paint

Every year there are swarm of Cicadas and they are good to eat

cicadas attack

[edit on 31-3-2010 by decadence]