Help Out Springwatch By Spotting Ladybirds!

[PlecMama]

Ladybirds are by far the favourite creature in our house, he have hundreds of ladybird toys, ornaments, models, pictures etc, no one can not love a ladybird.

Help out by telling SpringWatch where and when you have seen ladybirds and find out about all the different kinds of ladybirds:

Ladybird Springwatch

Record your Harlequin ladybird sightings here!:

Harlequins


Then just gaze lovingly on this little festival of spots!

Look at that little face

- thanks Jon

Pics courtesy of Wiki and Jon

 

[n3ont3tra]

Wow that's so cool! I wish that happened around here.

 

[Leopard-danio]

Lady birds are very pretty insects, i remeber 2 years ago one landed on my hand and i stood there for ages waiting for it to fly off, it was in spring when i saw that one.

 

[Barracuda518]

Very interesting. That second picture is very good

 

[sianeds]

Aren't ladybirds meant to be real horny little things?? I remember being told that the orange stuff they leave on your hand is.....potential baby juice

 

[PlecMama]

lol no, it's blood, they release it as a defense to put you off eating them, it smells icky and if you have ever tasted it - which I wouldn't recommend - it's toxic and bitter, foul tasting. They do it when they feel they are in danger, you have to handle them gently

I have read, but haven't tried, that you would have to eat a few hundred of them to actually get ladybird poisoning.

 

[Erised]

In all honestly, I absolutely hate ladybirds and don't want them near me. So not everyone loves them I used to like them as a child and do still think they're very pretty little animals ... as long as they're not on me.

Quoted from the website:

If a ladybird lands on you, it won't bite. The only records of them biting people date from the ladybird 'plague' of 1976 when there was a population explosion. Millions of ladybirds died of starvation when their food supply ran out and one or two may have been desperate enough to nibble people.

Now, they can say whatever they want, but my reason for disliking them as much as I do is because they *do* bite. When I was 9 I had a ladybird on my hand (it landed there itself!) and suddenly there was a sharp pain on the place the ladybird landed. I swore then and still do that I got bitten. No-one I share this with believes me though, they all claim they're sweet innocent animals that would never do such a thing. Glad to find that they *can* actually bite.

Picture my mum took of 1 last year:

​

 

[cheesy feet]

Look at that little face

- thanks Jon
[/quote]
I don't know about a cute little face (jaws munch munch) but they are pretty little bugs

 

[starrynightxxi]

i liked ladybugs/birds until i moved in with my boyfriend's family out here. In the subrubs they're rare and pretty and special, in the country they're annoying as all get out. Hundreds of them become permanent residents in houses and get into everything. I don't care how pretty they are, hundreds of dead and living bugs in your sink, food, and windows is just gross. I've even had them divebomb me in the middle of the night. Stupid bugs.


That said, if I lived somewhere where they weren't common, or didn't make a habit of living in colonies in my house, I'd probably like them again...

 

[kribensis12]

I hate them too, they bite me every year when they appear for spring. When i was in kindergarten, one landed on me that was 8 inches long. It was a giant. And it bit me, and i was bleeding. I know hate the things, and their little cousin that fly in by the mobs and invading our homes every fall.

 

[K.J.]

I have a strange fear of bugs, especially butterflies. But I see ladybugs (ladybirds? where did that come from) all the time here. I do remember them biting, which is why when I was a little kid I would scream and jump on my mother's back whenever they came near... I prefer hummingbirds...

 

[mommyof2bettas]

i liked ladybugs/birds until i moved in with my boyfriend's family out here. In the subrubs they're rare and pretty and special, in the country they're annoying as all get out. Hundreds of them become permanent residents in houses and get into everything. I don't care how pretty they are, hundreds of dead and living bugs in your sink, food, and windows is just gross. I've even had them divebomb me in the middle of the night. Stupid bugs.

When I was little I used to love them so very much, but now because of what starrynight said, and because I saw the underside of one I hate them they are actually beetles... and now I see lots of orange or yellowish ones instead of bright red ones.

 

[Danno]

I like them because they eat the "nasty bugs"