Ladybirds!

i found some yesterday in the garden which shocked me a bit as thought it was to early for them lol:)))))

Lucky you! Hardly ever see one in these parts. But then we have a lot less pests too.

oh, nice! and they're the right ones, not those 'orrible newcomers that include these as part of their diet.

I'm never sure whether having a lot of ladybirds is a good thing or not - they're lovely, but as they eat aphids, they need a supply of them, which means your garden's in trouble

oops! just Googled "what do ladybirds eat" and found that some are vegetarian!

http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/insects-and-invertebrates/14315-what-do-ladybirds-eat.html

http://www.ladybird-survey.org/lots_about.aspx

you can even "grow your own"!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0055JJ6A6/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=B0055JJ6A6&linkCode=as2&tag=completheatr-21

How wonderful to see so many.

I just hope they stay around to gobble up aphids! I hope they're not vegetarians!!!!!!

one piece of advice I remember when buying ladyinds is to release them at night - they only fly during the day, so if you let them go in daylight, they'll fly off to someone else's garden! Not sure about wild ones - but if there are so many, there must be something to keep them. Wonder if one can buy ladybird food to encourage them to stay? other than letting aphids take over!

lucky you, I've only seen one here:-)

I was amazed at the number, Ba - lots of them all round the garden! :-)))) Fran, what are you on? Vino? ;-)

lol not on anytihng much - got to grow the grapes first!!

And they all seem to be about the same size, not a parent and brood. .

Wonderful seeing so many Barbara, they've wintered well haven't they, which also means the aphids will have too, so lots of grub for them!

I'd guess the aphids will appear at any time now, wouldn't you? The snails have woken up...and I've seen two Peacock butterflies. :-))

I've seen butterflies and something has been munching my leaves ( small holes on primroses etc) all through winter, can't find out what though. I have seen small slugs too recently and the frogs are singing, soon be spawning. I removed some old birch leaves from the top of huge plant pot with climbing rose in and there were horrid squirming things underneath on top of the soil. I sprayed them I'm afraid. I had a lot of trouble with saw fly last year and panicked. Hope I haven't killed goodies, I'm afraid to check. I don't, as a rule, use poison for fear of causing damage either directly or indirectly and now I'm suffering terrible guilt:-(

I would say so Barbara, always a good and bad aspect isnt there? Yes, the butterflies are waking up!

Ba, my primroses too are all bitten and nipped, I had a look outside later on last night and picked at least 25 huge cream mottled slugs, some 3ins in length off the patio, bagged them up and in the bin they went. I wouldn't worry about your squirming things, sometimes we have to make a stand....:))

Thanks Janey, I feel less guilty now:-))

My Peiris was covered in Ladybirds, gathered as many as I could and put them on the conifer hedge.Helps keep some conifer bug(that turns all the conifers brown) at bay.

What were your frogs singing, Ba? LOL. It had to be that Paul McCartney song...