What’s happening here?
Ladybugs!!! Or as the Europeans call them, Ladybird Beetles.
Walking through the fields next to the farm, I came across these little ladies (and gents?) having themselves a very close picnic get-together. Apparently, the wintering habits of ladybugs brings them together like this. Crazy, huh? They call the little cuddle puddles they make “aggregates.” The more ladybugs, the merrier, because next summer, they’ll dine on those rascally aphids that eat my cabbages and kales.
I think the photo-taking was slightly disturbing to their reverie. Some of them started climbing the wheat. But strangely, I didn’t see them take flight. Fun fact: Ladybugs won’t fly if it is under 55°F.
Lucky you! I consider these little ladies a good thing to have roaming about in my garden too. A friend once had Ladybugs by the dozens’ coming into her home (I suppose trying to escape the cold winter) & she wasn’t happy about the invasion. So I tried to capture as many of those indoor Ladybugs as I could & put them in a small container & tried to overwinter them in my refrigerator…sadly they didn’t make it through the winter in my fridge. I’ve also tried luring them into the garden with special Ladybug scented lures. Not sure if that was a success but I did see a few productive ladies working their way up my Bellis Tasso plants. Anytime you feel you have too many then please feel free to usher those little buggers this way:-)
We have the ladybugs, too. I haven’t seen them concentrated like that, but I’m sure they are somewhere out in the field! Thanks for the pictures!