Boolie’s Blog

I’ve mentioned before how it sometimes seems that everything you see is an invasive species, such as the cute little ladybugs in my yard that turned out to be an Asian species originally brought to America for pest control.

But this little ladybug, fierce and ferocious (if you’re an aphid), is not the same species! Have I finally found one of our native ladybugs?

Alas, no, it has two spots too few. The seven-spotted ladybug is closely related to its American cousin the nine-spotted ladybug, but the nine-spot is rarely seen these days. The seven-spot is native to Europe and, like the Asian beetles, was brought over to the States for pest control and then established itself in the wild.

This one established itself on the petals of my purple coneflower. But the aphids are on the roses! The roses! For the love of Sammy, the aphids are on the roses!

Ah well, I’ve gotten a little disoriented in foreign lands myself.

Yesterday afternoon, the cats and I were enjoying a dry spell in the weather. I brought my camera and macro lens into the backyard with the hope of photographing some of the little greenish-white spiders that live in the coneflowers. They weren’t cooperating by posing on cones at the edge of the patch, so I started puttering around the yard.

While trimming one of my favorite rose bushes, I noticed this ladybug was on the underside of one of the leaves of a stem I had just cut. I rescued it from the clippings and put it back on a rose petal. It was a real eye-opener when I looked at the pictures later. I had always assumed the black patches on the white middle section were its eyes, and was surprised to see its real eyes just below that section, two compound eyes much like a fly’s eyes.

Furthering my belief that there are no native species left in Oregon, I think this species of ladybug (lady beetles is the preferred term) is an Asian species that was introduced in the US for aphid control. We had a bunch of ladybugs last year, but I was disappointed to not see more this spring. Aphids overran our daisies, some of the roses, and some of the other plants, with my red friends nowhere in sight.

While trimming the spent daisies last weekend, I noticed a number of ladybugs on the cut stems. To their eyes, I was probably a monster coming in and clear-cutting their old growth forest. I could just hear their little screams of “Never Forget!” as the daisy stems fell to the ground. I relocated every ladybug I saw, I hope my kindness is remembered next spring when the aphids are on the prowl.