Sometime during 22nd or 23rd October, vast swarms of harlequin ladybirds arrived all along the south coast of the Island, having travelled across the Channel on warm winds from the south. Many people noticed them swarming on the outsides of houses and on the ground.

The last time anything like this happened was in the Autumn of 2007. These are not our native ladybirds but a very successful introduced species which are now looking for places to hibernate. They are very good at consuming aphids but it is believed that they could out-compete our native ladybird species. They are quite harmless to us.

In 2007, when they arrived in huge numbers, we expected to see lot of them the following spring. That did not prove to be the case so a similar pattern may be observed next spring.

Find out more about the Harlequin ladybird here http://www.harlequin-survey.org/