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I'm see that I'm late to the party on the question of Lady Beetles.
The ones that are found in our houses are almost invariably the Asian
Lady Beetle (Harmonia axyridis). This has probably been stated by
someone else. I've rarely found any other species of native or
non-native Lady Beetle in my house. They do tend to aggregate. The
only other species I've seen in large aggregations is the native
species, Coleomegilla maculata, a sort of longish, narrow-bodied
beetle that is sometimes found in very large aggregations when you're
raking up leaf litter in the springtime. There are at least three
non-native species of Lady Beetles here in Nova Scotia -- the Asian
Lady Beetle (Harmonia axyridis), the Seven-spotted Lady Beetle
(Coccinella septempunctata), and the Fourteen-spotted Lady Beetle
(Propylea quaduordecimpunctata. There are quite a number of native
species - I won't list them here.
Regarding Donna's question about whether the non-native species like
H. axyridis might eat certain destructive insects on trees, mostly
likely they will. I've watched Asian Lady Beetles eat all kinds of
insects, especially aphids, but just about anything they can find in
the woods back at my farm in Ontario. They were kept particularly
busy eating aphids and other insects on my Birch trees.
There are several native species that look rather similar to Asian
Lady Beetles, but as mentioned, we don't usually find them in our
houses. Asian beetles are extremely variable - ranging from no spots,
to lots of spots, and from a pale orange through to a deep orange-red.
Regarding releasing them outdoors. While it's true that they are
considered detrimental to our native Lady Beetles -- they compete for
the same foods and may even eat the small species or their nymphs, --
to be quite frank, there are so many gazillion Asian Lady Beetles on
the loose already that another handful of them out of someone's house
isn't going to make much difference one way or the other to the native
Lady Beetle population. However, their release might well kill off a
lot of aphids in the yard or garden.
If you're curious about species, you could have a look at my Lady
Beetle gallery on Pbase. There are a few of my photos of native and
non-native species posted there - including all of those species
mentioned above.
https://pbase.com/crocodile/lady_beetles
bev wigney
Round Hill, NS
On 4/19/20, plchalmers@ns.sympatico.ca <plchalmers@ns.sympatico.ca> wrote:
> Hi David & All,
>
> I remember that Lady Beetle Survey. I'm sure that I still have the guide
> somewhere. For a year or two I made an earnest effort to be more observant
> of lady beetles and to record them when I saw them; odd little sketches in
> my notebooks.
>
> As I recall, and I stand to be corrected on this, the survey was cancelled
> and results not published because the guide was found to be faulty. Some
> species, particularly Harmonia axyridis are just so variable that the guide
> was misleading.
>
> I haven't thought about lady beetles in ages. There's a organic/health food
> store in my neighbourhood which boasts one in its logo on the outside of the
> building; I must study it to see if it corresponds to any known species. It
> would be ironic if it were an "invasive alien".
>
> Cheers,
>
> Patricia L. Chalmers
> Halifax
>>
>> On April 19, 2020 at 8:03 AM David Webster <dwebster@glinx.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Carmel & All,
>>
>> In 1997 the Canadian Nature Federation sponsored a Canadian Lady
>> Beetle Survey which included a visual guide to ID. On the internet I was
>> not able to locate anything comparable. Bug Guide is useful if one can
>> learn to avoid the misleading images.
>>
>> Yes Adalia bipunctata (two spotted) was sometimes abundant.
>>
>> For a painless introduction to beetles in general (mug shots) Beetles
>> of Eastern North America Authur V. Evans 2014 has beautiful illustrations.
>> Be aware that "God has an inordinate fondness for beetles".
>>
>> YT, DW, Kentville
>>
>> On 4/18/2020 9:51 PM, Carmel Smith wrote:
>>>
>>> David Webster: I am not going to kill any of them...even the ones inside
>>> my window.
>>>
>>> Re: the two-spotted Lady Bug which someone mentioned, I see these every
>>> summer here. In fact fairly plentiful, and I wondered if those were the
>>> aliens...(!).
>>>
>>> Now I'll be paying more attention, and brush up on the different types.
>>>
>>> Carmel Smith,
>>> Midville, Lun. County
>>> On Saturday, April 18, 2020, 07:40:46 p.m. ADT, David Webster
>>> <dwebster@glinx.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Hi Carmel,
>>>
>>> There are about 40 species of Coccinellidae in NS and most of these
>>> resemble common Lady Bugs in some respect and likely would be recognized
>>> as lady bugs. So unlike some official in Alice in Wonderland I would
>>> suggest trial first , execution later.
>>>
>>> YT, DW, Kentville
>>>
>>> On 4/18/2020 4:42 PM, Carmel Smith wrote:
>>>
>>> So the basic way to differentiate them is that the ASIAN species has
>>> basically a white head with some "M: or "W" black markings whereas the
>>> native Lady Beetle has a black head and small--if present at all--white
>>> markings on the head.
>>>
>>> Therefore it's not the number of spots?
>>>
>>> I would not want people who assume everything is an Asian species going
>>> around killing all Lady Beetles they find.
>>>
>>> Carmel Smith
>>> Midville, Lun. County
>>>
>>> On Saturday, April 18, 2020, 01:19:28 p.m. ADT, Donna Crossland
>>> <dcrossland@eastlink.ca> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks to Randy for stating what I was thinking also. Don't release
>>> invasive Asian beetles. They vacuum up nicely, much more easily than
>>> cluster flies, which are also on my list. Seeing so many of these Asian
>>> beetles now, I do wonder what impact they are having on native insect
>>> diversity. There are likely many tragedies in the insect world caused by
>>> a litany of recently introduced invasive species to which we are
>>> blissfully unaware. I often wonder what life was like before cluster
>>> flies.
>>>
>>> Donna
>>>
>>> On 2020-04-18 12:23 p.m., Randy Lauff wrote:
>>>
>>> Ladybug = Lady Beetle = Ladybird Beetle.
>>>
>>> Do not release the Asian Beetle (a type of Ladybird). Kill them.
>>>
>>> The second biggest ca