Fly Away Home

Lady Bug, Lady Bug, fly away home,
your house is on fire and your children alone.

It is a strange little nursery rhyme, remembered from my youth. It didn't made a lot of sense to me then, and it certainly doesn't ring any truer now. First of all, they are not bugs but rather beetles. Generally classified as "Lady Bird Beetles," the Coccinellidea, they are not in danger of loosing their families to fire. However, our native Lady Bird Beetles are in grave danger of being out-competed by invasive Asian members of their own family.

Thirteen Spotted-Lady Bird Beetle photo by Dale Zutavern

As native Lady Beetles become more difficult to find, this interesting photo documents a rare local species. Studies by the good folks at Cornell University and O.S.U. are trying to assess which native Lady Bird Beetles are present and just how they are being impacted by the non-native species.

Most species of Lady Bird Beetles aggressively feed on aphids and mealy-bugs and are welcomed by gardeners and farmers alike as "beneficial insects." And if a few are good, more must be better, right? So, some Asian imports were originally welcomed to our country.
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"Come on in, eat up, ladies and gents."
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Until, too late we realized... our native beetles (the ones that don't try to hibernate in your home during the winter) were being impacted by the intense competition for food.

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Even in their larva form (often called an "Alligator") they are major consumers of insect pests. Unfortunately most gardeners don't recognize this "pre-beetle." Instead these colorful red-and-black foragers are blasted with chemical powders or sprays, before they are able to feed on the garden pests they so ably consume.

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And while we searched for beetles in Adams County, the only candidate found was this unusual "Twenty-spotted Lady Bird Beetle", an interesting cousin who feeds on leaf molds. Although it is about half the size of the Lady Beetles we commonly note, it stands out of the crowd with its odd white-and-black color scheme.

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After several days of collecting, only three Lady Beetles were documented- two of them being the larger non-native varieties. Have all our "Lady Bugs" flown?

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While I am personally not a huge fan of collecting, I do encourage you to take good photos of any of your local Lady Beetles and share information with researchers. We may be too late to save Ohio's native insects, but perhaps we will think twice before we import more non-native insects into our ecosystems.