Kitchen Garden Forum

I won't talk about a plague of ladybirds, because we like them. However, over the last two or three weeks we have been finding ladybirds in our sitting room - one or two at a time, mainly on the window or the windowsill. Initially, I thought they may have been laid as eggs on a large and old aloe plant on the windowsill, but there have been too many. I am sure we would have noticed the larvae. My current theory is that they have been hibernating in the chimney, and as the weather has warmed up, they have come down rather than going up. (Alternative version: there are just two of them, playing a game. We pick them up, put them outside. They fly up to the chimney, come down. We pick them up, put them outside. etc etc.) Any ideas?

Good morning Ken, we get the same situation as yourself in our bathroom, so no chimney there.
I think they can get in through the smallest of holes in pointing in the brickwork, in gaps around windows or indeed maybe down the chimney if not in use, so that they can overwinter in a frost free environment.

At least there is getting some food around for them now, i noticed a big batch of aphids on some new rose shoots the other day.

Hi Ken,
Here the Ladybirds seem to congregate in the window frames, the opening lights. With this wonderful weather we have been having you have probably opened windows that have been closed all winter so I wonder is this could be one of the reasons why you have a sudden influx.
JB.

Thanks, Johnboy and OH. You may well be right. The big windows in the sitting room are double-glazed, but my wife grumbles that the draught still gets in somewhere! All the best, Ken