It's Been a Bit

My best shot of 2025

Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle

Harmonia axyridis

Eating Oleander Aphids on Swamp Milkweed

I truly dislike vague-posting but I have no explanations today. 

At least I have posted.

I welcome myself back.

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A Loveliness of H. axyridis

Seven-spotted Lady Beetle
Not my photo

Last week, I experienced two lovelinesses. On Wednesday and Thursday, it suddenly got warmer and hit 70°F (21°C) late in the afternoon with a bright and low sun. There were lady beetles everywhere in the air flying about randomly. They would bump into my head and get stuck in my hair. Animals in my hair make me nuts, so I stayed inside, even when Jody came to collect the malaise trap and insect collections from the summer. Lovelinesses are not lovely. 

Lady beetles congregate during these times in the fall in order to find a warm place for the winter. And those warm places, especially for Harmonia axyridis (the invasive Asian Lady beetle),  are our houses. 

I did compromise with Lucy, though, and sat inside the garage while she made her rounds in the woods, barn, and fields. And there they were, a whole bunch of little H. axyridis just milling about on the floor. So I began shooting. I found three wing patterns, a squished one from under the automatic doors, and one flew so I saw its abdomen. You won't see the third pattern here because I seldom shoot dead animals unless necessary for identification. 

In the above series, you can see the beetle
grooming her wings so that
they fold neatly under her elytra.

Another wing pattern that I photographed.
It is the same species.

It is said that we can all identify H. axyridis by the W on their thorax below their head. That's not entirely true, but with that field mark to begin with, and with enough experience, you can generally figure out which lady beetles are the "bad guys." The field marks that you cannot use for identification are pattern and color. In the popular public domain poster below, you can see that H. axyridis comes in many different colors and patterns. Entomologists are pretty sure that there are many more.

Harmonia axyridis

When we remodeled our kitchen down to the studs, we found nests of H. axyridis numbering in the thousands in the walls. They are infamous in northern Vermont for their plague-like behavior: coming out of your walls and covering your windows when the sun is strong and retreating when it is cold again.

They smell, they bite, and your dogs and cats will not eat one after their first taste. Except for Lucy, bless her. She seems to love them. 

I spend some time each year reading odds and ends about H. axyridis. This year, I didn't learn anything new about them. I learned something about our culture and lady beetles in general. Both Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms wrote popular songs about them. I found both and can't decide which I like best.  They are popular with children's choirs in Europe, especially in the spring. The lyrics for both are the same—an old folk tale:

Ladybird, sit

 on my hand -

 I will do you no harm.

 No harm shall come to you;

 I only wish to see your colorful wings:

 your colorful wings are my joy.

 

 Ladybird, fly away,

 your house is burning, your children are crying

 so much, so much.

 The evil spider is spinning her web around them;

 Ladybird, fly home,

 your children are crying so.

 

 Ladybird, fly

  to the neighbor's children,

 They will do you no harm.

 No harm will come to you:

 they only wish to see your colorful wings,

 and greet them both for me.

The links to the songs:

Marienwürmchen (R. Schumann)

Marienwürmchen (J. Brahms)

The page that those links are on has wonderful 

information on the folklore and music.

🐞 May your loveliness be non-invasive. 🐞

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Ladybug Cannibalism

The dead ladybug seems to have it's wings open while the other ladybug feasts on its innards. I had never seen this behavior before so it surprised me. These are Multicolored Asian Lady Beetles. They are invasive bugs. You can read about them here on my blog. They infest homes in the spring here.

Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle Set

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Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle

Harmonia axyridis

It's ladybug infestation time again. But it isn't as bad here as in northern Vermont. This one was spotless. According to bugguide.net:

First introduced to North America (for biological control of aphids) in California in 1916, and again in California in 1964 and 1965. Also introduced in Washington state from 1978–1982, and in Nova Scotia, Connecticut, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Washington D.C., Delaware, Maine, Mississippi, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina from 1978–1981 [Gordon, 1985]. Despite the numerous intentional releases, the species did not become established until 1988 in Louisiana [Chapin and Broux, 1991]. Thereafter, it spread rapidly thoughout most of United States, reaching Canada in 1994.

Although not native to this country, this species is widely sold for aphid control throughout the US, and has become very well-established (to the point of becoming a nuisance). The stage that eats the most aphids is the larva.

Adult beetles seek sheltered places to hibernate for the winter, and often invade homes in large numbers for that purpose. The best way to prevent this is to find and seal the cracks by which they gain entry.

When threatened, ladybird beetles in general, and this one in particular, exude a foul-smelling and -tasting liquid from their leg joints.

Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle Set

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Signs of Spring: Pests and Moans

Cluster flies and Asian Lady Beetles (click here for my posts) are reappearing now that the sun is stronger and the windows warmer. And the car has a broken rack and pinion. How much will that cost? The entire cost of the camera that I have been saving for during the past eighteen months. I am reacting much stronger than I ever thought possible. My camera is my only enjoyment in life (sad, huh?) and I am devastated. Damn Saturn cars. The car has been a disaster and a hazard ever since I bought it. I can't even afford to get a Subaru because I have been buying $400 of heating oil a month. 

February 25, 2008:

Hello,

We're running a travel piece on Vermont featuring St. Mary Star of the Sea Church for New York Magazine’s website. I found your blog through Google image and your photos might work for the piece. Would we be allowed to use your photos? As a rule, we include photo credits.

Here are the photos we would like to use: (here)

I'm under a bit of a time crunch, as my deadline is Tuesday (2/26). If you have any questions feel free to write back to me here or call me at 212-508-0718.

Thank you so much,
Maura Lynch

I'm so easy. I called Maura immediately to confirm she was a person and gave permission for the magazine to use the photos. Then I e-mailed all of my kids and told my digital photography class. I gloated. Maura warned me that they may not use the photo. Well, they didn't. They didn't even publish when she said: the article came out a few weeks later. And it wasn't about St. Mary's. It was about Jay Peak. It was pretentious and condescending (aren't those symptoms of anger and hostility?). New Yorkers who vacation here already have a pretentious, aggressive and condescending reputation to live down. 

The last paragraph of the article: "The Chronicle, Orleans County’s weekly paper, offers local art-gallery, museum, and yoga-class listings and unparalleled glimpses of life in the Kingdom (recent headline: “Arland Macie knows how to run a wheelbarrow")."

I have all the old Chronicles (our weekly newspaper) but I don't remember that article. Anyhow, I get the creeps when people get chuckles at the expense of other people and their lives. 

I'm glad they didn't use my photo after all. 

End of moans. 

Technorati Tags: Harmonia axyridis, Asian Lady Beetles, Cluster flies, Pollenia rudis Fabricius), New York Magazine

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