Talkback: Where are the ladybirds? - Talkback

clogherhead

20/08/2012 at 14:25

on my allotment at newtowncross Drogheda

donutsmrs

20/08/2012 at 18:53

I am also infested with greenfly, and haven't seen any ladybirds either. My sweetpea have been covered in them and my runner beans covered in blackfly. I have sprayed with soapy water but to no avail, they just keep on coming. I would rather not have sweetpeas to pick than to spray them with pesticides.
If you get any ladybirds please send some my way.

Bookertoo

20/08/2012 at 20:20

In my garden? We were almost overun with them earlier this year, and there are stilfl - gladly - a good number about. Timmed off some branches of spring/summer flowering things and had to tap them carefully near the flower beds so as not to put ladybirds in the council garden bin. I am in the east Midlands, and can only speak for our garden, but they are plentiful here.

Adam Pasco

21/08/2012 at 10:46

Thanks for the comments. I'm in the East Midlands too, Bookertoo, in Peterborough. It sounds as if those early ladybirds could well have been ones that overwintered in your garden, and some have stayed around.

Perhaps the lesson here is NOT to tody-up and cut things back in the autumn, but leave dense cover for ladybirds (and other creatures) to hibernate in.

It stands to reason that if your garden is a 'desert', and devoid of food (pests) then you won't have much friendly wildlife around either.

But my garden isn't a desert, and I DO have plenty of pests!

HjakU

21/08/2012 at 11:17

Before the "summer" we had very wet weather, prior to this, here in North Lincs,, there were literally millions of ladybirds. So many ladybirds that you couldn't help but crush them under foot as you walked, (sad I know). Now their numbers have fallen and there is just the odd one or two. Therefore, weather conditions seem to be the main culprit for their deplition

Bookertoo

21/08/2012 at 11:40

Adam, not quite as East as you, Nottinghamshire, so more midlands probably. Tidying up is indeed death for ladybirds, a few dead leaves and dry logs with ferns and things give them somewhere to live over winter. All of our garden was completely overun with them in Spring, more than an overwintering few I thought. It was so hard not to kill some by accident, the Spring clean up got delayed - whih turned out to be a good thing as at least they oould shelter from the ridicuous amount of rain e then had. Rarely cut much back in autumn as I am sure it is not only ladybirds that shelter in leaves, hedges and so on. Of course there are also slugs, but they would be under ground as well so not point worrying about them sheltering.

Edit D

21/08/2012 at 12:41

I have also been wondering what happened to them. Last year I literally couldn't walk across the garden without accidentally stepping on one, this year I can't recall seeing any at all. I never clean up in the autum, preferring to tidy up in the spring, and parts of my garden still need clearing out so they are basically just wild grassy and shrubby bits, so in theory plenty of cover. I had been wondering whether the extremely wet conditions were to blame, it's been raining non-stop from April to July in Colchester where I garden. It's a shame the multitude of spiders in my garden don't seem partial to greenfly :(

Cheerybeth

21/08/2012 at 22:44

We had loads when we had the few hot days in spring - they seemed to emerge from the gaps in fences and trellising - but now I need them I haven't seem them at all. Having said that, I hadn't had many butterflies in the garden until a couple of days ago, so hopefully they are on their way! (I'm in Northamptonshire)

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