they are still about,because their food source is still about,all due to the crazy weather mostly

And they mean a good luck for the next year, Kingsfieldkev.

I'm still seeing a lot K, I've got UPVC windows and I think they're using the vents for shelter because when I open the windows I'm finding them in the rooms as well!

Does anyone know if they 'bite' because my OH says they do and I say they don't!

My mum had one in her house yesterday, i've also still got them in my garden.

Franny i dont think they bite either, isn't the ones that look like ladybirds but are black with red spots that bite!

A good few summers ago there was a plague of ladybirds on the south coast and my sister swears she was bitten by them. I'm not so sure as they have hard little shells and probably just felt like that as they bumped into you.

I still have them in the garden here in Berkshire

I have handled ladybirds for years when moving them outside when they have come through open windows in the Summer or trapped in my block and I always handled them as a child, and have only ever been bitten once, and I am not 100% sure I was bitten.

I have however been sprayed on the finger by them many times, but just wash your hand or use a wet wipe and you're fine. Juts a little smelly whilst on your hands.

You would only have the threat of a small slightly smelly yellow dot on your hand if you try and handle them. Do not aefraid of being bitten.

They may enter your house, and will be no harm while hibernating for next year.

Ah..I say they do bite Franny...Years and years ago we were in Prestatyn at the start of The Offa's Dyke walk, which I never completed, and there was an invasion of ladybirds. Thousands and thousands of them coming straight off the sands, and they bit everyone. My niece to this day can not stand them.

never been bitten in a normal garden situation though.

Thank you all for your reply,very interesting found some more today,little lad collects them in a pot,he collected hundreds of them in summer & he handle`s them all the time but he`s never been bitten by one,thanks again guy....Kev.

They bite me when I'm putting them around the garden, but that's usually no worse than a prickly tickle.

Katarina hope they are good luck & thanks for that.

not here in my part of norfolk but i am a bit of a hermit baaaaaaaaa humbug

Hello, Kingsfieldkev, Ladybirds have long been connected with good fortune in myths and legends, and from an early age children still learn to treasure them through storybooks and rhymes. Such high regard is well-earned. "Most ladybirds and their young (larvae) are carnivorous, feeding on and helping to control large numbers of insect pests, particularly greenfly. They can also eat mites, scale insects, mealy bugs and small caterpillars".
In 1891 ladybirds were exported to the United States, where they saved the Californian citrus industry from the mealy bug plague. The fungus eating ladybird adults and larvae feed on mildew fungus, which is common problem in gardens.
Keep them as treasury :)

Your a mind of knowledge Katarina,thankyou for sharing that very interesting.

We have our own native ladybirds here in the USA, but we needed a special species from Australia to save the citrus from Cottony Cushion Scale.

Hi Tugbrethil, how do they look like? Can you send photo sometime? So they are comrades with Cottony Cushion Scale :)(what is that? never heard this term, but I am not English)?

It's the Vedalia Beetle (Rodolia cardinalis), and they have an excellent picture of it on Wikipedia. And cottony cushion scale is dinner to it, rather than a comrade! : ) The scale attacks several kinds of subtropical plants, however, so you may never encounter either them or the beetle.

OK. Thank you for very good explanation. I did not know that. However, when I wrote your native ladybirds are comrades with the scale, I meant that you needed import of other ladybirds for its eradication. So I was just curious what kind of lazy ladybird it is, lol.
In other words, ladybirds are very useful and everybody should be happy to see them in his/her garden.
P.S. Are you entomologist?

Oh! Oops! : ] I thought you meant the Vedalia beetle!
No, ours are real trenchers on the aphids and juvenile leafhoppers, but tend to ignore mealybugs and scale, Oh, well!

So they keep agreement for centuries, that is nice :)

Maybe we humans could learn something from them--either that, or its like the Danegeld! : )

What is Danegeld?

From what I have heard, the Vikings used to charge "protection money" from some of the richer towns, instead of raiding them every time the wind blew right. The downside inspired the old saying in English about all kinds of extortionists, "Once you have paid the Danegeld, you are never rid of the Dane!" Fortunately, the Danish have reformed, and are far more welcome in most of the world, today! : )

I do not know, Tugbrethil, all these legends... Concerning countries with the lowest corruption then Denmark, Sweden and Norway are on the top.:)

I imagine that they are no more perfect than we are, but they seem to have done an outstanding job of reversing the barbarism of their past. Chances are pretty good that those tales arose from the excesses of the minority of their population that "went viking".

mentality is different not history which is coomparable to other empires

we could learn some lessens from the natural world as it goes .

Well they are still about,took a pic of one in garden yesterday so hope they are good luck Katarina.

spiders are still out in there webs to which is testement to the mild weather .

Kingsfieldkev: :) Yesterday I found ladybird on my window, too :)