WrightwoodCalif.com Forum

Public Forums => San Gabriel Mtns Flora - Fauna => Topic started by: Goldie on May 28, 03, 08:44:29 AM

Title: Who let out all the Lady Bugs?
Post by: Goldie on May 28, 03, 08:44:29 AM: Does anyone know anything about all the Lady Bugs out right now? Every year about this time they appear. I am at the top of Cardinal and today there has to be at least a million (or more!) of them. I find it fascinating to watch them and was wondering if they were (born?) here, are they just passing through, where do they go?
Title: Re: Who let out all the Lady Bugs?
Post by: angelwolf326 on May 28, 03, 08:48:52 AM: I was at the Country Club on Sunday and Monday and they were all over there too.....

They are so cute!!!!!!!!

Angel
Title: Re: Who let out all the Lady Bugs?
Post by: Ensen on May 28, 03, 09:57:01 AM: I know that in the past, they did "lady bug drops". They drop millions of them, by helicopter I think. They're a natural predator to the "bad bugs". Or so I was told. I would guess they did something similar this year.
Title: Re: Who let out all the Lady Bugs?
Post by: rmekemson on May 28, 03, 10:16:07 AM: Aw. lady bugs - nature's insecticide. Aren't they great?
Title: Re: Who let out all the Lady Bugs?
Post by: mtman on May 28, 03, 10:22:44 AM
Title: Re: Who let out all the Lady Bugs?
Post by: Mountain_Witch on May 28, 03, 12:52:43 PM: Convergent Ladybug Beetle

DESCRIPTION: L=0.25" (6mm). Forewings are orange with many to no black spots. Thorax is black with converging white lines (thus the name).
NATURAL HISTORY: Both adults and larvae feed on aphids; therefore, ladybird beetles are considered beneficial to humans. Adults spend roughly May-January in the mountains, then mate Jan.-Feb., and fly down to the valleys to lay their eggs and die. The eggs hatch, and the larvae go on a feeding frenzy eating aphids until undergo complete metamorphosis into adults and fly back up to the mountains. In the mountains, the adults often congregate in huge masses as seen in the bottom photo.

(http://wc.pima.edu/Bfiero/tucsonecology/animals/Images/arw_clbe_01.jpg)
Title: Re: Who let out all the Lady Bugs?
Post by: Mountain_Witch on May 28, 03, 12:59:29 PM
Title: Re: Who let out all the Lady Bugs?
Post by: Goldie on May 28, 03, 01:41:38 PM
Title: Re: Who let out all the Lady Bugs?
Post by: Chesslike on May 28, 03, 01:43:07 PM: They maybe cute, but watch out cause some of them have a little mean streak and will bite you! For real!
Title: Re: Who let out all the Lady Bugs?
Post by: Mountain_Witch on May 28, 03, 02:49:38 PM
Title: Re: Who let out all the Lady Bugs?
Post by: Stitches on May 28, 03, 04:36:43 PM: Are there different species of lady bugs? My six year old keeps claiming that the ladybugs with spots are girls and the ones without are boys. ::)
Title: Re: Who let out all the Lady Bugs?
Post by: Mountain_Witch on May 28, 03, 05:17:24 PM
Title: Re: Who let out all the Lady Bugs?
Post by: naturalist on May 29, 03, 10:43:56 AM: They have been hibernating up high in those cracks and crevices that Mountain Witch mentioned--I've seen them in old tree stumps completely frozen in the ice! When the ice thaws, they wake up (hungry--yes, sometimes they make a mistake and nibble on you!) and come down in the huge "swarms" we see this week!
Title: Re: Who let out all the Lady Bugs?
Post by: naturalist on May 29, 03, 10:46:57 AM: Okay, the other day I wrote a ladybug haiku:

Like orange snowflakes
Falling up from the cracks,
Ladybugs awake

:-*
Title: Re: Who let out all the Lady Bugs?
Post by: Nolena on May 29, 03, 10:52:35 AM: I've seen up to a foot of them in the bottoms of canyons in the winter. (Flume Canyon, canyons around Vincent Gap, etc.)
Title: Re: Who let out all the Lady Bugs?
Post by: Mountain_Witch on May 29, 03, 10:54:29 AM: I dig it. 8)

You're a pretty groovey Natuarlist. [smiley=flower2.gif]
Title: Re: Who let out all the Lady Bugs?
Post by: Goldie on May 29, 03, 11:50:36 AM: :) Thanks for all the info everyone - very interesting!
Title: Re: Who let out all the Lady Bugs?
Post by: Goldie on May 19, 05, 01:56:04 PM: Good news is they're back! :)
Bad news, so is the pone :(
Title: Lady bug hibernation?
Post by: lynnc on Nov 07, 08, 09:31:41 PM: This past Monday I was hiking with some friends at the bottom of Cedar Canyon where it meets up with Mescal Canyon. There were millions of lady bugs all over this one particular area. Today I was there again and they were completely gone! Does anyone know where they hibernate? I was wondering if they were heading down to the desert.
Title: Re: Lady bug hibernation?
Post by: SkierBob on Nov 09, 08, 06:22:07 AM: I've also seen lady bugs by the millions in the Littlerock Creek drainage.. 4 inches deep covering everything in site. It appears ladybugs gathering together in masses has something to do with them getting ready to hibernate.

http://www.psd267.wednet.edu/~kfranz/Science/science2000/ladybugs/ladybugscience.htm (http://www.psd267.wednet.edu/~kfranz/Science/science2000/ladybugs/ladybugscience.htm)
Title: Re: Lady bug hibernation?
Post by: GRAHAM_RANCH on Nov 09, 08, 01:06:41 PM
Title: Re: Lady bug hibernation?
Post by: Nolena on Nov 09, 08, 06:50:18 PM: I've hiked in the canyons for years.
Lady bugs over-winter every year in these canyons. I've stepped in them 1-2 feet deep in the winter.
They overwinter here. Then they come out in the spring. (And they bite when they first come out.)
Title: Ladybug question.....
Post by: samsonite on May 08, 09, 11:58:40 AM: My understanding has always been that the Forest Service releases ladybugs every year as a part of some program.

Doe anyone know if that's really true, or is this just a natural population of ladybugs that comes through every year?
Title: Re: Ladybug question.....
Post by: Wrightwood on May 08, 09, 01:05:01 PM: The rest of the Wrightwood urban legend is that they are dropped from black helicopters ;)

They are part of nature that we are so lucky to experience in Wrightwood.

There is other topics on this and I've merged them.
Title: Re: Who let out all the Lady Bugs?
Post by: Nolena on May 08, 09, 01:22:12 PM: They over-winter in the mountain canyons. If you hike in the winter, you will find them in crevices. I once stepped in some that were about a foot deep. They switch off on who is on the outside and who is on the inside. When it gets warm, they leave the huddle, and we see them down here.
Title: Re: Who let out all the Lady Bugs?
Post by: Laughlinguy on May 08, 09, 01:43:37 PM: I'm coming to WW in 2 weeks, camera at the ready. Does anyone know how long the ladybugs stay around?
Title: Re: Who let out all the Lady Bugs?
Post by: kew on May 08, 09, 03:47:55 PM: Several year ago my neighbor, on Linnet, called me over to her yard. She lifted up a low branch on a bush and there had to be more than a thousand lady bugs in a big ball under the bush.
Title: Ladybugs
Post by: tach18k on May 10, 10, 10:35:35 AM: I have been up the past 3 weekends and not till this past one have I noticed the thousands of Ladybugs all over the property, Just everywhere, that is good news, wish we had more off the hill.
Title: Re: Ladybugs
Post by: Cardinal on May 10, 10, 11:19:18 AM: There are some who believe that they are dropped by the millions from low flying helicopters. Others believe that this is just the time that they finally come out of hibernation.
Title: Re: Who let out all the Lady Bugs?
Post by: Wrightwood on May 31, 10, 01:36:35 PM: I noticed a black helicopter up near Blue Ridge earlier today and now the air is filled with ladybugs ;)
Title: Re: Who let out all the Lady Bugs?
Post by: Surfer_Dude on May 31, 10, 01:41:19 PM: :)

What is known as "The Red Storm" is triggered by an ever so faint humming noise that calls all ladybugs to Wrightwood. :)
Title: Re: Who let out all the Lady Bugs?
Post by: ForestGal on May 31, 10, 01:56:45 PM: I thought they were all in my yard! :o My little dachshund has been out back for several hours, chasing ladybugs. I wish I had 1 percent of her energy! ;)
Title: Re: Who let out all the Lady Bugs?
Post by: InTheWood on May 31, 10, 02:55:58 PM: After hibernating the lady bugs fly to the peaks to mate. Then they fly down the hill.

Last year the family and I hiked Baden Powell early in the season (still had snow on the middle parts of the trail) and at the top we found millions of lady bugs.

Too much snow left this year so we didn't make the same hike but it sure seems like they are done with the mating part of their life cycle and on the way down to the suburbs.
Title: Re: Who let out all the Lady Bugs?
Post by: Wrightwood on May 31, 10, 07:14:27 PM: Another helicopter hovered Blue Ridge late today.. we'll see on Tuesday ;)
Title: Re: Who let out all the Lady Bugs?
Post by: lagomorphmom on May 31, 10, 07:31:45 PM: Did a little searching and found the following:

Ladybugs (Hippodamia convergens) converging on a dead log in the San Gabriel Mountains
http://www.placeworld.com/record-rainfall/4400-ladybugs.html

and

Pinnacles National Monument - Nature & Science

http://www.nps.gov/archive/pinn/pphtml/5highlights396.html

I wonder if this is our (only?) species?
Title: Re: Who let out all the Lady Bugs?
Post by: Nolena on Jun 04, 10, 06:35:15 AM: This is the only species that I drop from my helicopter.
Title: Re: Who let out all the Lady Bugs?
Post by: Wrightwood on Apr 30, 15, 10:01:17 AM: Lady bugs are out of hibernation - not dropped from helicopters and they are not used to fight off bark beetles.

From Facebook this morning:
Chuck Carroll Where did you hear they eradicate bark beetles? This has never been discussed or mentioned in any Fire Safe Council or Fire agency (state, county or federal) as a means of handling bark beetles, they do not kill bark beetles. Lady bugs are not dropped by plane, these are a natural occurrence. Years ago this was discussed, but not sure if acted upon.
Title: Re: Who let out all the Lady Bugs?
Post by: Wrightwood on Apr 30, 15, 10:26:16 AM: Don't know if this is why people think ladybugs are released

Hemlock Woolly Adelgid
In response to the expansion, the USDA Forest Service has increased research on predators for biological control. A predaceous ladybug, discovered in Japan by a Connecticut researcher, has been tested and reared as a biological control-agent ladybug. This ladybug feeds exclusively on HWA. Mass releases of 125,000 adelgid-eating ladybugs were made in selected locations during 1999.

http://www.fs.fed.us/foresthealth/publications/update99/issues2.html (http://www.fs.fed.us/foresthealth/publications/update99/issues2.html)
Title: Re: Who let out all the Lady Bugs?
Post by: jek134 on Jan 16, 16, 02:50:02 PM: Our ladybugs have returned. I just noticed our fence is crawling with ladybugs. When we first bought our place up here in 2011, we had mountains of ladybugs outside on our back porch. Haven't seen them since. Today, maybe because of the sun melting the ice, our fence is crawling with them. Very cute.
Title: Re: Who let out all the Lady Bugs?
Post by: Wrightwood on Jan 16, 16, 03:09:05 PM: There was a helicopter flying in town last night ;)
Title: Re: Who let out all the Lady Bugs?
Post by: Nolena on Jan 16, 16, 05:41:09 PM: BAD Wrightwood!!
Don't start that rumor again!!
(And, probably your drone is dropping them.)
Title: Re: Who let out all the Lady Bugs?
Post by: Cheapskate on Jan 16, 16, 06:10:09 PM: Don't know if anyone remembers, but...moved to WW July 7 2001. The ladybugs were epic that week, completely "off the chain", as they say. Haven't seen it the same since.