This has not gotten a lot of publicity lately, what with the white-hot race for first selectman, and CBS and Fox investigating Staples cheerleaders’ baking habits for football players, but…
Has anyone noticed that Westport is under attack by ladybugs?
Yesterday, hundreds of the creatures swarmed over the wooden structure where we keep the boys soccer equipment, at Staples’ Loeffler Field. Several hundred more hung out in the parking lot.
Ladybugs seem benign. And I’m sure they play a crucial role in the life cycle of some other living Westport things, like deer ticks or Canada geese.
But hundreds of ladybugs are not cute.
They’re gross.
Lady bugs are supposed to bring good luck.
The back of my house was covered with them yesterday. More than a hundred, I’m sure. At least they were outside…
I heard on the news yesterday that there were also swarms in NJ. Like you, Dan, the news reporter said that Lady Bugs were cute individually but in swarms they were “creepy.”
Equally creepy is the nursery rhyme I knew as a child that said, “Lady Bug, Lady Bug, fly away. Your house is on fire and your children will burn.”
Where did THAT nasty nursery rhyme come from? I felt awful about it as a kid. Maybe in the “olden days” swarms were created or quelled by fire??
I like their “luck” reputation a lot better.
Hi Wendy:
Great comment. There’s an entire body of scholarly research dedicated to figuring out why so many nursery rhymes and kids’ stories are so scary. Wolves eating little children, that sort of thing…but you’re right, the ladybug rhyme is particularly ominous.
It seems the ladybug swarming is happening on Block Island too. It only lasted two days in Fairfield. Tons and tons came to my house I went out to be with them. From a gardener’s perspective they are excellent for hemlocks as they eat the white fluffy stuff (wooley algigid sp?) that infects and eventually kills the tree. You can buy them for this purpose.
They are infecting SCSU too, I felt like I needed windshield wipers for my glasses just walking from one building to the next. Actually, SCSU seems to have a lot of different bugs all over campus all of a sudden. It’s like a really big modgepodge of bugs just hatched and is invading out classrooms and our on campus appartments!
FROM CBS RADIO:
Posted: Thursday, 22 October 2009 7:32AM
Ladybugs Swarming in New Jersey
TRENTON, NJ (AP) — Ladybugs in New Jersey are beginning to swarm as they look for a warm place to spend the winter.
State Agriculture Department entomologist Mark Mayer says the Asian lady beetles are typically attracted to light-colored homes and structures. They’ll congregate on windows and doors.
Homeowners are advised to make sure their windows and doors are properly caulked so the bugs can’t find a way inside.
Officials recommend using a vacuum without a propeller if the beetles swarm in a home. Scientists say ladybugs eat pests to flowers and plants and can give off a foul odor if crushed.
the ladybugs COVERED my house 3 days ago…the gray outside wall was “alive” and they found a crack around the in wall a/c and started invading one of the rooms. I looked on line and read that this was not unusual.
http://www.frugalmom.net/garartladybuginfest.htm
They have been kept under control indoors with a vacuum; I left the ones outside alone. BUT< have you noticed the large, antediluvian appearing, long horned beetles all over town that arrived a few weeks ago?
Great info, Adam — thanks!