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Flocks of ladybirds are entering homes with zoologists hot summer is to blame,
Social media users have shared witness accounts of an influx of ladybirds on windowsills and taking indoor shelter this autumn.
“My parents’ Home has become one house for ladybirdsThey like bathrooms for some reason, it was like their herd, they get in through open doors and windows,” one person wrote on X.
Another said on X: “What with all the ladybirds today, never seen that many around my house before. Hopefully they don’t damage anything!”
But experts are urging people not to panic. They say the increase in sightings is simply because the insect is seeking shelter before winter.
“This is the time of year now when they’re looking for somewhere to lie low over the winter,” Tim Coulson, professor of zoology and head of biology at the University of Oxford, explained. Independent,
“A nook in a house would be charming.”
He explained that ladybirds sleep through the winter in what is known as diapause, which is similar to an insect hibernation.
“They slow down their metabolism to reduce energy use. In the wild they choose places like bark in piles of leaves, anywhere that provides a bit of shelter and is away from things that might eat them,” Prof Coulson said.
“Sometimes they may come into homes looking for a safe haven,” he said.
Professor Helen Roy, an ecologist and ladybird expert at the UK Center for Ecology and Hydrology, explained that each species of insect has a preferred location to survive through the winter.
“For example, two-spot and harlequin ladybirds enter buildings, seven-spots tuck themselves under leaf litter and ladybirds nest under water,” she told. Independent,
However, the hot summer has resulted in smaller critters this year, which made it “a good year for their prey, and therefore a good year for them”, Prof Coulson said.
Small predators eat aphids and because hot Season More aphids means more food for ladybirds.
Dr. is Associate Professor in Ecology and Conservation at Anglia Ruskin University. Peter Brown said that the last “boom year” for the Ladybirds was during the hot summer of 1976.
“There were a lot of seven-spot ladybirds on the beaches in 1976 as they searched for food, and people thought they were invaded—they weren’t, because they’re native to the UK,” he said.