A Ladybird/bug..in winter

Hi all at ATS...just walked about half a mile to the local shop, counted three ladybirds / bugs happily wondering about. It's early february..snow is on the ground here in yorkshire, uk. At the age of 49, i've not seen one in winter. here's a snap of one,taken today.

I have several in my house now wandering around. I haven't seen any outside yet. I did see a Honey bee last week on one of our 70 degree days, and the tulips here have already bloomed. Last night it frosted so I am sure those flowers are dead now, but it's amazing these crazy weather patterns....

I am really curious about what the implications of this are going to be. If it keep being unseasonably warm, and then below freezing, doesn't that hurt the insect/plant life? I have chickens and they are all out of sorts with this weather. They molted when it was warm, then it got freezing while they had less feathers, then they stopped laying and then it got warm again...

I'm in the US by the way.

Wow,thats pretty interesting

And ladybugs are cool

Very strange to see ladybirds out and about at this time of year! Where abouts are you in Yorkshire N/S/E/W?

I'm going to take a quick nosey outside as i saw a little fly on the door last time i went out for a smoke which i thought was odd.

But then again we still has bees in November.

Today is rather a warm day though, perhaps the ladybird woke up expecting spring only to look at the calendar and thought "WTF!"

I started noticing ladybugs (Asian lady beetles) in our area in the winter months a few years ago. I'm in south eastern Tennessee, Appalachian Region. Some years they can be like an infestation, dead lil ladybugs fulling up the window sills. It is crazy! One year while waiting to vote I was talking to a lady that was at her wits end on what to do about it. She had a small child in the house & no matter what she did she couldn't keep the kid from eating them!

From what I heard, at least for our area, the reason it is so bad, we had an invasion of aphids, so the ladybugs were used as a control method, then themselves got out of control. Don't know if that is true or not, but cleaning up so many dead ladybugs can be depressing. I ways thought of them as happy little creatures.

OiO

reply to post by ThorsBrother

Hi mate..i'm in West Yorkshire, i might have another wonder about with the camera, can't understand..ok the sun is out, but snow on the ground..
I only opened a photo bucket account so i could put pics up...

If someone is doing some building work or house maintenance near by, it could of disturbed them. I used to work in the building trade and sometimes when pulling an old wooden gable or fascia board off an house I would disturb lady birds, wasps and all sorts. they would wake up and act normal when I did so.

i've gone on a couple of hikes in so far in january/feb and seen mosquitos and all kinda bugs including lady bugs, and even flowers starting to sprout, im in Ontario canada very strange weather this year so far, no significant snow fall yet and its 10 degrease today! ( no idea what that is in fahrenheit ) but its warm

well im off to do some rollerblading... in February!

reply to post by ThePeopleParty

Hi buddy..no building work near by. this is a quiet country lane..some strange goings on with the weather & critters..do they know something we dont.?

In Europe I didn't have any ladybugs in winter but in around November-December before the serious snowing when it still wasn't cold, there was lots of lady bugs flying outside, I almost felt it there is some migration of lady bugs cause every minute I got like 6 bugs my room.

Meaning I may have had 10 bugs entering my room in less than 10 minutes. Because I'm nice to some specific insects, these are one of those, I let them fly outside, I didnt kill any.

And never before have I seen so many flying outside or entering at a time. Was that a sign for incoming earthquake or smth else? I don't know but e.g when you see ants moving out of their ant houses sometimes it is caused by tremors.

I do not believe Global Warming, there is no such thing but I do believe the fact - Weather Changing As A Natural Earth Process, and currently the Earth's weather is getting anomalous.

The weather has been a little unusual here in Colorado too! We have birds that we don't normally have at the feeder, the temps have been in the high 50s and low 60s and our last snow storm was more like a spring snow storm than a winter one. Here it is February and the lake that is in the middle of town is thawed, much to do the dismay of the nutty ice fishermen! LOL Our spring is later than most people in the US and we don't really start getting 'real' spring like weather until mid April to mid May. I have a feeling spring will be on time.. which is early for us! LOL

I just wonder if the mountains have got enough snow since that is where we get our water from. Speaking of water.. it wasn't until I was older and started traveling more that I realized that not everyone's water tastes like the bottled dasani water. LOL

reply to post by union_jack


Ok was just a thought. and at least you can rule that out now

Tbh there has been some strange things here in east yorkshire too. Im sure some of the tree's started spouting just before xmas like they usually do in spring.

reply to post by ThePeopleParty

Everything has gone tits up TPP..in the words of ..L.A.Marzulli..we are not in Kansas anymore.

reply to post by union_jack


I heard that Ladybugs were actually called BugLadies.

Weird huh?

Anyways, I love the little buggers!

reply to post by Kluute

Lol..i love all animals & critters, they all have just as much right to live as we do. My daughter phoned to say she had a mouse...she wanted to put a plastic tub over it and let it go, must be like me..

We are all one.

Until humans realise this, the violence will never stop.

Think with your Heart, not with your Ego.

Animals have just as much right to walk the Earth as we do..

I love every single living thing on mother Earth.

Love

There was a butterfly in my son's bedroom on new year's day. I don't know if it was a newborn or one that forgot to die off from last year but it was lively enough. We let it out the window. Not sure if it was a peacock or a tortoiseshell.

we did have a warm spell that I think brought them out, I took this picture on the 30 Jan and less than a week later we were under a few inches of snow

Originally posted by wigit
There was a butterfly in my son's bedroom on new year's day. I don't know if it was a newborn or one that forgot to die off from last year but it was lively enough. We let it out the window. Not sure if it was a peacock or a tortoiseshell.

Many butterflies emerge from their cocoons, only able to live a few days, seemingly for the purpose of mating only (poor things have no mouthparts and cannot eat), but if my memory serves me well, both tortoiseshell and peacocks will hibernate over winter and sometimes seem to wake up early, in response to warmth. I used to teach aerobics in a church hall and one seemed to appear around January every year, flying around while we lept around!

I'm also a bit concerned how everything waking up too early and perishing in this horrible cold snap, have certainly seen a couple of bees recently, plus some local sparrows seemed to be nesting.