SO PRETTY: “Sitting on my porch on East Hall Road and looking
across the Olean Road to the side hill at the beautiful trees. I
wonder if even an artist could paint it. Mother Nature is real and
beautiful.”

That’s how Gloria Sweeney of Derrick City put it in a recent
note.

Along with correctly predicting the late date of the peak of the
foliage, the experts had said the leaves would not turn their
normal beautiful hues but would simply turn brown and drop to the
forest floor. Wrong! This year’s foliage was stunning.

LADY BUGS: OK, so maybe we were off by a day or so and about a
million bugs … Skip Riekofsky of Kushequa writes, “Lack of ladybugs
over your way, huh? How many hundreds do you want? Lots of ’em
here!”

We also had a call Sunday afternoon from a Rixford reader who
reported sweeping up “hundreds” of ladybugs with her Shop Vac. Not
only did they fly into her windows but, when she came in from her
car, they landed on her and one even lit on her neck and bit
her.

“I’ve got hundreds and hundreds of them.”

We had written in Saturday’s Round the Square that we had yet to
experience the normal ladybugs infestation this fall. And, of
course, they were zooming around all weekend long!

On the same subject, we also heard from the Bureau of Forestry,
Elk State Forest, which is used to getting “bugged” this time of
year – by two sources.

“Asian lady beetles or lady bugs as they are most commonly
called are here in great numbers this fall,” they said in a press
release.

“The Bureau of Forestry receives numerous calls daily as to why
we are dropping them from airplanes and helicopters or releasing
them from 18-wheeled trucks. The Bureau of Forestry is not
releasing these non-native beetles.

“… As your friends and neighbors, we must endure the same
problems these beetles pose as you do.

“The most effective way to control large numbers of Asian lady
beetles is caulking and spraying the exterior of your home. If you
have lesser numbers, caulking and vacuuming can be enough but still
repetitive. If you would like more information, the web has
additional resources that are very informative. In addition, your
local county extension office may have brochures on the Asian lady
beetle.”