Ladybird, Ladybird, Fly Away Home

Last October I wittered on about an invasion of harlequin ladybirds crawling up our outside walls. For the last two or three months a steady trickle of them has found its way back down from the attics into the house. On average I destroy about half a dozen of the little bastards a day, but I am fighting a losing battle; there may be thousands up there (in one Kentish barn a mass of up to half a million was found). Before last autumn I had never noticed a Harlequin; now we are overwhelmed by them.

Introduced into the States in 1988, its numbers have been soaring in France, Belgium and Holland, where bio-control companies were still marketing it long after its invasive character was recognised. It is now spreading rapidly through the UK and may soon wipe out our 46 native species. There is currently no effective method of control specific to Harlequins.

When disturbed Harlequins release volatile, noxious compounds which smell like rotten potatoes. The redder the ladybird, the smellier. They have been known to destroy batches of wine and even entire vinyards.

Harlequins stain walls and furniture and have a penchant for nesting in computers, causing them to crash. In the US some people now tape up their doors and windows to stop ladybirds getting in during the autumn mating season (ladybirds can be very disturbing when you're mating). I can see us having to do that this year. I mean tape up doors and windows.

The Harlequin Ladybird Survey (http://www.harlequin-survey.org) has pretty much given up on the South East, but is inviting reports of sightings from elsewhere. The chart shows what they look like.

Invasion of the Ladybirds

Every afternoon this week we have been plagued by ladybirds, For years, apart from the occasional two spot and yellow larva, we have only seen the familiar seven spotted variety. The newcomers have 18 spots, although some are predominantly black with red patches.

The invaders have landed on the walls of the house in their hundreds, before crawling upwards - presumably mainly into the roof space. They have infiltrated washing on the line, and mated brazenly across the front door.

Clusters have appeared in the corners of the bathroom. They appear to have hunkered down for the winter, but when one baths and the temperature rises, they begin to crawl around the ceiling and wing it across from one wall to another. It's disturbing; all those little bugs perceived from the corner of one's eye, as if one is suffering from DTs.

I am fond of ladybirds, and was happy to let them hibernate indoors, until I discovered that these are the Harlequin Ladybird. They were introduced to North America from Asia in the 1970s as an "environmentally friendly" aphid control. Within a few years they had driven out other ladybirds and aphid-eating insects. They were first spotted in Britain three years ago, and have been spreading from the south-east into the rest of the country. Numbers have also been rising in France, Belgium and Holland. Naturalists fear that they may drive our 46 native species into extinction.

I'm not so sure I want to share my bathroom with them now.

You'd think that, with increasing understanding of the frail balance of nature and the impact of global warming, Mankind in general and the Americans in particular would have learned to stop introducing species where they don't belong. Our continuing inability to predict the consequences of mucking about with ecosystems seems to support the case for a moratorium on genetic modification in agriculture.