LADYBUGS GALORE: No, no, no! The government did not have planes
fly off and drop hordes of ladybugs on the populace!
Our ongoing spate of warm weather has caused the ladybugs to
emerge from the nooks and crannies of houses in the region —
sometimes by the thousand — but they are here throughout the year
but well-hidden in the walls.
We did have a caller who reported seeing an airplane overhead
and, shortly afterwards, observed the ladybugs. The coincidence of
these two things, however, does not constitute a government
conspiracy.
There have been times when environmental agencies have dropped
certain bugs from airplanes to control some other type of pest but
this is not one of them.
These ladybugs are actually an invasive species. They are an
Asian variety and, if you examine them, you’ll see they are orange
in color. Native ladybugs are red. The invaders, too, tends to
swarm in large numbers, have been known to bite, and produce quite
a mess if squashed.
To rid your house of these pests, use a Shop Vac to suck them up
and release them a distance away so they don’t return — they can
fly. If you don’t feel quite so charitable, Raid also works
well.
In any case, the ladybugs, which are considered good luck, will
return to their hiding places as soon as our warm weather
disappears. Interestingly, we haven’t had the normal reports of
these critters for quite awhile. Maybe it’s been too cold even for
them.
WEIRD WEATHER: Speaking of our warm weather, we got a note from
Jody Jaros of Port Allegany: “Is it spring time? And here we have
just gotten the snow blower out and primed! Just saw a small flock
of robins in our back yard around dinner time. Haven’t seen any
robins for several weeks. Are they still migrating south? Have
heard tell that they sometimes winter here. How is that possible?
Where would they find their main food staple of earthworms?”
Speaking of our cold weather, Don Parrish, a retired Waterways
Patrol Officer of the Pennsylvania Fish Commission, remembers
another unusual early snowstorm: “I recall it snowed in Mount
Jewett on Oct. 10 back in the early ’80s.”
