“Ladybird, ladybird stay safe at home …”

The ladybirds are waking up and my sunny bedroom window sill is alive with slowly trundling spotted bugs. They crawl into houses to overwinter and do no harm in sheltered nooks, hibernating and waiting for spring. They apparently exude a scent when they find a suitable spot to encourage others to join them in a winter snuggle and this smell lasts over a year, guiding them back the following autumn.

It can’t be heat that wakes them up as, it is colder now than it has been all year, so it must be day length, or maybe they can count the time spent in hibernation somehow (tiny ladybird watches on their tiny jointed legs?)

My house guests are harlequin ladybirds who were introduced to control aphids. They have brown legs and come in an astonishing variety of patterns. Some think they should be killed as aliens, but as I can’t resist any wildlife that manages to find a home in my home, so I decided to treat them instead. I have an overwintering geranium covered in aphids and I thought they would make the perfect wake up meal for the ladybirds.

The first ladybird ate the first aphid she encountered and then sat on the stem in digestive satisfaction. The second, third and fourth ladybirds however, ignored the aphids entirely and determinedly fell from the geranium back onto the window sill over and over again. I assume the desire to fly away to a new home is stronger than hunger at this stage.

Normally I would gather them up and let them fly out of the window to take their chances at the start of spring. However it will be – 12 here for about the next week each night, so they are definitely safer here on the warm window sill. They might be longing to “fly away home”, but for now home is where the heat is!

 

© cathysrealcountrygarden. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material and images without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Cathysrealcountrygarden with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.