Dilema!

Lovely to see the frog! We’ve tried so hard to encourage frogs, toads and newts to our pond over the years, to no avail!
I haven’t seen a hedgehog in our garden for a while..we used to have several..sad.

If you couldn't feed the harlequin larva to the frog it'd be good as feed for a carnivorous plant? Artificially maintaining an informed balance seems fair...
Given that you've got the moist ground you could grow Venus flytrap or pitcher plants outdoors? Pop the occasional choice treat in😄

One harlequin less means many more hungry ladybirds doing a better job than H can. I would get rid of it before it gets rid of all the ladybirds. Is the Harlequin an import? I love your frog.

yes SG the harlequin is an alien species. it originated in Asia was introduced to the USA and then on wards.
it is now a deceased ladybird. but I let it have a good feed before I killed it.

I'd get rid of the harlequin. The native ladybirds it won't be able to eat will grow and eat your aphids instead.

it has gone Hywel to the ladybird heaven in the sky.

RIP :)

Not seen any here but think if i did it might have to go lol

hedgehog spotted by the bird feeders at 6.30 tonight :o)))

if you find larvae that have strips of yellow orange like this one it is a harlequin. if the spots are more orange and spots rather than a continuous line it is a native ladybird. I am learning quite a lot due to my youngest's internship in Wales. She has less than 2 weeks now.

I always wonder whether to get rid or not, last year I read an article where they were asking for us to not kill the ladybirds in case it was a native one, we have more ladybirds in our garden this year than the last five put together, I inspect them thoroughly, no expert but I'm sure they're our native ones, Harlequins are larger aren't they, I'm adding this to my favourites to help me identify them, thanks Seaburn...

yes harlequins are 7-8 mm in size. our natives are 5mm or less.
one of the easiest ways to id them is that the harlequin has a white triangle on its face looks like a w or a m on its face.

the larvae are easier to tell apart as I have already said. they have a soild yellow/orange stripe down its sides. Saw some 7 spot ladybird larvae today and they have clear spots on their sides.

We hardly get any ladybirds, despite being a wildlife friendly garden, and our frogs are not eating the slugs? why not?