Comments on: Multicolored asian lady beetles

By: K T Cat

K T Cat — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 15:13:51 +0000

Off topic: Merry Christmas to you and all the family! Here’s hoping you get some really unusual infestations for Christmas.

By: JohnR

JohnR — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 20:18:44 +0000

We have a modular house, so one wall in our house is the “marriage wall” – where the two halves are joined. There’s about an inch gap inside, stuffed with insulation. I once pulled some insulation out of the bottom in the winter to try to run a speaker wire, and I discovered that we seem to be the hibernation palace for I’d guess about 60 billion of these things. On peak hibernation-spot-finding days on sunny fall days, you have to be careful to keep your mouth shut when walking around in our back yard or you’ll wind up with one in your mouth.

By: moe

moe — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 20:11:56 +0000

Great shots and great post. And thanks for the links!

By: K T Cat

K T Cat — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 16:25:10 +0000

Thanks for another great post.

By: Tim Eisele

Tim Eisele — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 18:52:14 +0000

I gather that it is pretty typical for an invading species to have a massive population explosion when they first get into an area, followed by a crash and eventual stabilization at a more sane level. What happens is, they initially have few predators or diseases in a new territory, so they breed and breed and breed for a while. Eventually, though, either something figures out that they can be eaten, or one of their diseases from the old country comes into the area. If it’s a new predator, then they eat well, breed fast, and eventually bring the invading species under control. If it’s a disease, it sweeps through the population and wipes out most of them. I expect that this is what happened to your lady beetles.

By: BobW

BobW — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 14:46:54 +0000

Their populations must be either cyclical or they migrate through an area in waves. We had a plague of them about 5-7 years ago–on all the windows, inside all of the lights–but for the past 3+ years they have been virtually non-existent around our house.

I wonder if they just had a good year following 1988 in LA and were able to spread. If they have been in the US since 1916 this cycle may have happened a number of times.

Or I may have accidentally sealed up the holes in our house.