Why we need more ladybirds

The perfect insect to attract to your garden!

Ladybird ladybird fly away home..

🐞 The old English nursery rhyme referring to when farmers burnt the fields after harvesting and warning the beneficial ladybirds to fly to safety.

🐞The collective name for ladybirds is the Coccinellidae, which has its origins in the Latin word coccineus meaning ‘scarlet’.

🐞 The number of spots on a ladybird indicates what species it belongs to, not, as commonly believed, how old it is. To identify the ladybird species accurately, the colour and number of spots needs to be taken into consideration.

🐞The most common ladybird in the UK is the 7 Spot Ladybird - which is red with, 7 black spots!

🐞There are believed to be 47 different ladybird species in the UK but over 5,000 species globally.

🐞Not all ladybirds are red with black spots. Ladybirds can be yellow, orange, brown or red with black, white or red spots. Some even have stripes instead of spots! It is the wing cases that are coloured, the wings that they use to fly with are transparent and lie just below the hard exterior casing.

🐞The Harlequin Ladybird is the most invasive ladybird in the world and is rapidly killing the other species. This ladybird is particularly difficult to identify as it has many different appearances and includes black with red spots, stripes and orange with white spots.

🐞Ladybirds eat aphids which is why they are such a delight to have in the garden and are a natural alternative to spraying with chemicals. You can encourage more ladybirds to your green space by creating a simple ladybird hotel from a few pine cones bound together with twine or chicken wire and then positioned in a sheltered spot within the garden.

🐞 Ladybirds hibernate (or ‘overwinter’) from October all the way through to February. Any ladybirds found in a centrally heated home should be moved to a sheltered spot outside to ensure that they complete their overwintering and don’t die in the colder (less aphid-rich) months.

🐞When attacked, a ladybird will give out small drops of a yellow, unpleasant tasting fluid. Birds then associate the bright colour with a bad taste and therefore leave them alone.

🐞An adult ladybird can live for between 1 and 3 years.

#ladybirds