Ladybirdsssss

[88V8]

The Critall windows. It seems the perimeter gap is just sufficient for ladybirds to take refuge, then when they are opened to let steam out, the ladybirds take this as an invitation to come into the kitchen. There, they find multiple nooks and crannies in our 400yo woodwork, and can look forward to a comfortable winter.
Many are Harlequins. We're supposed to kill them, illegal immigrants that they are.
It seems rather futile.
They're here.

What are you doing about them?

V8

[colin]

Put them in soup.

http://www.harlequin-survey.org/
I stopped to sit down in some rough chalk grassland dotted with hawthorn scrub last week and noticed that they were all around crawling over bushes and grass, apparently some migrant birds have been hanging on longer this year to produce a third brood so maybe these are what they have been feeding on?

[kiloran]

As an aside, do spiders dislike ladybirds?
We have a spider's web outside our kitchen window. A few weeks ago, a fly got trapped and within seconds, the spider appeared, wrapped up the fly and dragged it to its hideyhole.

Yesterday, a ladybird got stuck in the web. Spider came down, had a gander, and just went back to its lair. The ladybird ultimately freed itself and fell to the ground, and then flew off.

--kiloran

[Gengulphus]

As an aside, do spiders dislike ladybirds?
We have a spider's web outside our kitchen window. A few weeks ago, a fly got trapped and within seconds, the spider appeared, wrapped up the fly and dragged it to its hideyhole.

Yesterday, a ladybird got stuck in the web. Spider came down, had a gander, and just went back to its lair. The ladybird ultimately freed itself and fell to the ground, and then flew off.

I don't know for certain, but high-contrast, very noticeable patterns of black, red and yellow are a common warning pattern in nature, for anything from "I taste bad" to "I'm highly venomous and can do considerable harm to you if you mess with me". So the spider might have been put off by the ladybird's colours.

Though one of the reasons I'm uncertain is that I've once seen a spider persistently trying to tackle a wasp about twice its size that had got trapped in its web. It didn't succeed in getting close enough to deliver its highly venomous (to an insect) bite and the wasp eventually got free, but it certainly gave it a good go!

Gengulphus