7 ms·

High-flying ladybug swarm shows up on National Weather Service radar

97 points by leothekim 7y ago

zigzaggy 7y ago
Some might say the signs of the end are everywhere lol. Seriously though, this reminds me of the cicada swarms that hit the south from time to time. Those ARE quite like locusts.
- theandrewbailey 7y ago
  Periodical Cicadas? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periodical_cicadas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periodical_cicadas
  - zigzaggy 7y ago
    That looks like them, yes. When they show up they take over. They’re attracted to the buzzing sound of a weedeater, I learned. They come and hang on to your shirt and arms and land on your head. You can’t stop every 30 seconds to swat them off, so you just learn to be friends and coexist. It’s a biblical experience.
Wowfunhappy 7y ago
Well, at least they're ladybugs. I don't know how much of this is just due to the name, but I like ladybugs. They're red and pretty, and they don't sting or bite or swarm around my food. ...this all seems too pleasant, so feel free to educate me on how ladybugs are actually the worst insects ever. :(
- andrewflnr 7y ago
  Anyone who tells you ladybugs are terrible is probably just an aphid posing as a human to spread propaganda.
  - eitland 7y ago
    To add something interesting to the story, just one data point aka anecdote though: 8 years or so ago we got a aphid attack on my plum tree that I killed off with spray (systemic. IIRC, so it would kill of those bugs even when it didn't hit them directly.) A couple of years later the aphids where back and I wouldn't spray it again so I started looking for alternatives. One thing I figured out was I had also a ant problem in the same tree, so I got rid of those and that helped quite a bit but had to be repeated from time to time. A couple of years later ladybugs started to show up and this year I counted 6. Considering each of them can eat 100 aphids a day or so they are very welcome :-) A few possible explanations, won't go into rating them: - maybe it was all random - maybe ladybugs are more sensitive to insect spray than aphids are (would make sense since they prey on aphids and systemic insecticides could/would accumulate up in the food chain.) - maybe the ant colony had been keeping the ladybugs away the first year the aphids attacked (I don't know but it is widely known that ants and aphids often form a symbiotic relationship so it wouldn't surprise me a bit if they also defended their source of yummy sugar.) - maybe my plum tree was just to small to pick up a collection of ladybugs the first year. - or maybe a combination.
    - ajmurmann 7y ago
      From totally unscientific observations I made as a young child: the ants actually deploy and protect the aphids like cattle. I remember seeing ants literally carry ladybugs away from the aphids.
      - eitland 7y ago
        Wish I was that patient when I was young :-) Meanwhile I've been looking around and while most of the results here aren't scientific studies they still support our observations: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=ants+aphids+relationship&t=fpas&ia=web https://duckduckgo.com/?q=ants+aphids+relationship&t=fpas&ia...
      - lelf 7y ago
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphid#Ant_mutualism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphid#Ant_mutualism
- EvanAnderson 7y ago
  I haven't seen any ladybugs here in Western Ohio in the last 7 - 10 years. We see a lot of a similarly-sized and shaped beetle that's orange with brown spots, but the familiar red and black-spotted ladybugs I remember from my youth seem to have disappeared. These orange doppelgängers come indoors in droves as the fall weather gets cooler. They mass in clumps in corners of windows around my house. They are not at all endearing like the ladybugs they seem to have replaced.
  - EvanAnderson 7y ago
    Oh, ugh. I searched for an answer and came up with this: https://soapboxie.com/social-issues/Where-Have-All-The-Ladybugs-Gone https://soapboxie.com/social-issues/Where-Have-All-The-Ladyb... It looks like we introduced the invasive Asian ladybirds and ended-up killing off most of the native ladybirds. Now I have smelly orange beetles trying to get into my house. Thanks, other humans! (It's times like these that I think the last human dying can't come quickly enough.)
    - jeena 7y ago
      I was in my summerhouse last year when a swarm showed up and within minutes the whole house was getting black and they were trying to get into the house. I made a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xst1HYJK9Og https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xst1HYJK9Og Seeing them in such huge numbers is terrifying, I totally see why people during biblical times thought the end was nigh. That was October last year and they got into my car. Now in Sweden I saw some of them crawling out of the car last month when it got a bit warmer.
      - dillonmckay 7y ago
        Offtopic, but does your summerhouse have wired internet access or LTE and if so what speed (down/up) and cost? Just curious.
        jeena 7y ago
        We use a local provider http://www.trans.net.pl/ http://www.trans.net.pl/ and they have some special setup I'm not sure what it's called but I think it's long range wifi and they use a satelite dish as the antenna. The speed is not super great, especially the uplink is to low for us with 1 Mbit/s and we need to stream cctv from there continously, but the downlink is ok with 20 Mbit/s and we pay 56,12 zł which is about $15 per month.
cobbzilla 7y ago
hey ladybugs, get funky
- cobbzilla 7y ago
  no one got the beastie boys reference?
  - ajmurmann 7y ago
    Regardless of anyone gets the reference or not, that kind of topic that doesn't further the discussion is generally unwelcome on HN and will get you downvotes.
neonate 7y ago
https://web.archive.org/web/20190606020026/https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-ladybugs-on-radar-20190604-story.html https://web.archive.org/web/20190606020026/https://www.latim... http://archive.is/tJ2LA http://archive.is/tJ2LA
viewtransform 7y ago
One thing I was surprised to learn is that ladybugs migrate like butterflies. In California, there are secret locations in the Sierras where they overwinter before flying off into the central valley. https://youtu.be/Y3v8AogAK7U?t=295 https://youtu.be/Y3v8AogAK7U?t=295
- wil421 7y ago
  In the South they find secret locations like your window seal[1], door frame, or house siding only to come out in the hundreds when the time is right. They used to infest the schools I went to. Some people even put them into their garden to kill bugs. The article said they love aphids. [1]https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-ladybird-ladybug-nest-on-window-310685963.html https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-ladybird-ladybug-nest-on-w...
interfixus 7y ago
From my childhood -and this would be around 1970 - I remember a huge and sudden infestation of ladybugs. For the probably two days it lasted, lawns were tinted red, the air - also out over the water - was visibly red-misted, you couldn't walk anywhere without stepping on the critters, you couldn't quite escape the buzzing and the sound of what sounded like munching, and everywhere was an iron-like smell, some what reminiscent of peas (I can't quite describe it, but to this day the right kind of odour will remind me of ladybugs). And let me tell you: They bite! Walk outside uncovered, they would alight on your skin and start nibbling, not terribly painful, but enough so be unpleasant. This was Northern Europe. I have seen swarms since then, but nothing remotely compared to that massive outbreak.
- linuxftw 7y ago
  I witnessed similar in the mid 90s in NA. My suspicion was the agricultural industry (or it's associated regulatory bodies) unleashed the swarm. Unfortunately for my area, they were the non-native variety and since then, native lady bugs are completely wiped out. Haven't seen one in 2 decades.
- tonyedgecombe 7y ago
  There were a lot in the UK in 1976. We had a huge growth in aphids after a warm spring, the ladybirds followed on. I remember seeing a boat at our local reservoir that was covered in them, even the sails, it had turned from white to read. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35603972 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35603972
  - interfixus 7y ago
    Oh yes, the long, hot summer of '76. A glorrious time to be 16 and unexpectedly having the house to myself for several weeks. But no ladybugs to speak of, over here across the North Sea from you. Jellyfish, on the other hand. I remember sailing through shallow waters almost solid with them. Also a one-off, never seen anything like it since then.
lkrubner 7y ago
I have a question. Does anyone know why insects sometimes go so high? I went to Chicago last year and I went to the top of the Hancock building and I went to top floor, the observatory, to look out and see the surrounding area. And a dragonfly flew by outside. Why would it be up that high? What's the point? There is nothing up there. On the wide open plains of the west, there are not many reasons for insects to go so high, so why do they?
- rock_hard 7y ago
  Reaching for the stars?
- ahje 7y ago
  I remember talk about a similar ladybug swarm back when I was a kid. It was a dry summer and it was assumed they were looking for areas with more water. Other than that, insects are often quite small and their altitude varies with the weather. Low-flying swallows are seen as a sign of coming rain here in Finland, as the insects are closer to the ground when the atmospheric pressure is low.
- anvandare 7y ago
  Usually migration, or just because they got caught by the wind/hot air bubble. It's not like a fall from any height can harm them anyway. https://www.nature.com/news/2010/100204/full/news.2010.54.html https://www.nature.com/news/2010/100204/full/news.2010.54.ht... https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2011/06/01/128389587/look-up-the-billion-bug-highway-you-cant-see https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2011/06/01/128389587/l...
- bdr 7y ago
  I'm just speculating, but safety might be a reason. "Nothing up there" means there are fewer predators around. And if they do want to reach you, it will cost them a lot of work, while you got free potential energy from an updraft.
- mlrtime 7y ago
  Or the annoyance of that one mosquito making up to your 45th story apartment in NYC, how does it know to get up there and through my tiny cracked window!?
bookofjoe 7y ago
Could this bring down a plane?
boulos 7y ago
The article didn’t link to the actual radar from @NWSSanDiego, which seems to be this tweet: https://twitter.com/NWSSanDiego/status/1136115889516867586 https://twitter.com/NWSSanDiego/status/1136115889516867586

97 points by leothekim 7y ago

Some might say the signs of the end are everywhere lol. Seriously though, this reminds me of the cicada swarms that hit the south from time to time. Those ARE quite like locusts.

theandrewbailey 7y ago
Periodical Cicadas? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periodical_cicadas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periodical_cicadas
- zigzaggy 7y ago
  That looks like them, yes. When they show up they take over. They’re attracted to the buzzing sound of a weedeater, I learned. They come and hang on to your shirt and arms and land on your head. You can’t stop every 30 seconds to swat them off, so you just learn to be friends and coexist. It’s a biblical experience.

Wowfunhappy 7y ago

Well, at least they're ladybugs. I don't know how much of this is just due to the name, but I like ladybugs. They're red and pretty, and they don't sting or bite or swarm around my food. ...this all seems too pleasant, so feel free to educate me on how ladybugs are actually the worst insects ever. :(

andrewflnr 7y ago
Anyone who tells you ladybugs are terrible is probably just an aphid posing as a human to spread propaganda.
- eitland 7y ago
  To add something interesting to the story, just one data point aka anecdote though: 8 years or so ago we got a aphid attack on my plum tree that I killed off with spray (systemic. IIRC, so it would kill of those bugs even when it didn't hit them directly.) A couple of years later the aphids where back and I wouldn't spray it again so I started looking for alternatives. One thing I figured out was I had also a ant problem in the same tree, so I got rid of those and that helped quite a bit but had to be repeated from time to time. A couple of years later ladybugs started to show up and this year I counted 6. Considering each of them can eat 100 aphids a day or so they are very welcome :-) A few possible explanations, won't go into rating them: - maybe it was all random - maybe ladybugs are more sensitive to insect spray than aphids are (would make sense since they prey on aphids and systemic insecticides could/would accumulate up in the food chain.) - maybe the ant colony had been keeping the ladybugs away the first year the aphids attacked (I don't know but it is widely known that ants and aphids often form a symbiotic relationship so it wouldn't surprise me a bit if they also defended their source of yummy sugar.) - maybe my plum tree was just to small to pick up a collection of ladybugs the first year. - or maybe a combination.
  - ajmurmann 7y ago
    From totally unscientific observations I made as a young child: the ants actually deploy and protect the aphids like cattle. I remember seeing ants literally carry ladybugs away from the aphids.
    - eitland 7y ago
      Wish I was that patient when I was young :-) Meanwhile I've been looking around and while most of the results here aren't scientific studies they still support our observations: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=ants+aphids+relationship&t=fpas&ia=web https://duckduckgo.com/?q=ants+aphids+relationship&t=fpas&ia...
    - lelf 7y ago
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphid#Ant_mutualism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphid#Ant_mutualism
EvanAnderson 7y ago
I haven't seen any ladybugs here in Western Ohio in the last 7 - 10 years. We see a lot of a similarly-sized and shaped beetle that's orange with brown spots, but the familiar red and black-spotted ladybugs I remember from my youth seem to have disappeared. These orange doppelgängers come indoors in droves as the fall weather gets cooler. They mass in clumps in corners of windows around my house. They are not at all endearing like the ladybugs they seem to have replaced.
- EvanAnderson 7y ago
  Oh, ugh. I searched for an answer and came up with this: https://soapboxie.com/social-issues/Where-Have-All-The-Ladybugs-Gone https://soapboxie.com/social-issues/Where-Have-All-The-Ladyb... It looks like we introduced the invasive Asian ladybirds and ended-up killing off most of the native ladybirds. Now I have smelly orange beetles trying to get into my house. Thanks, other humans! (It's times like these that I think the last human dying can't come quickly enough.)
  - jeena 7y ago
    I was in my summerhouse last year when a swarm showed up and within minutes the whole house was getting black and they were trying to get into the house. I made a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xst1HYJK9Og https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xst1HYJK9Og Seeing them in such huge numbers is terrifying, I totally see why people during biblical times thought the end was nigh. That was October last year and they got into my car. Now in Sweden I saw some of them crawling out of the car last month when it got a bit warmer.
    - dillonmckay 7y ago
      Offtopic, but does your summerhouse have wired internet access or LTE and if so what speed (down/up) and cost? Just curious.
      - jeena 7y ago
        We use a local provider http://www.trans.net.pl/ http://www.trans.net.pl/ and they have some special setup I'm not sure what it's called but I think it's long range wifi and they use a satelite dish as the antenna. The speed is not super great, especially the uplink is to low for us with 1 Mbit/s and we need to stream cctv from there continously, but the downlink is ok with 20 Mbit/s and we pay 56,12 zł which is about $15 per month.

cobbzilla 7y ago

hey ladybugs, get funky

cobbzilla 7y ago
no one got the beastie boys reference?
- ajmurmann 7y ago
  Regardless of anyone gets the reference or not, that kind of topic that doesn't further the discussion is generally unwelcome on HN and will get you downvotes.

neonate 7y ago

https://web.archive.org/web/20190606020026/https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-ladybugs-on-radar-20190604-story.html https://web.archive.org/web/20190606020026/https://www.latim... http://archive.is/tJ2LA http://archive.is/tJ2LA

viewtransform 7y ago

One thing I was surprised to learn is that ladybugs migrate like butterflies. In California, there are secret locations in the Sierras where they overwinter before flying off into the central valley. https://youtu.be/Y3v8AogAK7U?t=295 https://youtu.be/Y3v8AogAK7U?t=295

wil421 7y ago
In the South they find secret locations like your window seal[1], door frame, or house siding only to come out in the hundreds when the time is right. They used to infest the schools I went to. Some people even put them into their garden to kill bugs. The article said they love aphids. [1]https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-ladybird-ladybug-nest-on-window-310685963.html https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-ladybird-ladybug-nest-on-w...

interfixus 7y ago

From my childhood -and this would be around 1970 - I remember a huge and sudden infestation of ladybugs. For the probably two days it lasted, lawns were tinted red, the air - also out over the water - was visibly red-misted, you couldn't walk anywhere without stepping on the critters, you couldn't quite escape the buzzing and the sound of what sounded like munching, and everywhere was an iron-like smell, some what reminiscent of peas (I can't quite describe it, but to this day the right kind of odour will remind me of ladybugs). And let me tell you: They bite! Walk outside uncovered, they would alight on your skin and start nibbling, not terribly painful, but enough so be unpleasant. This was Northern Europe. I have seen swarms since then, but nothing remotely compared to that massive outbreak.

linuxftw 7y ago
I witnessed similar in the mid 90s in NA. My suspicion was the agricultural industry (or it's associated regulatory bodies) unleashed the swarm. Unfortunately for my area, they were the non-native variety and since then, native lady bugs are completely wiped out. Haven't seen one in 2 decades.
tonyedgecombe 7y ago
There were a lot in the UK in 1976. We had a huge growth in aphids after a warm spring, the ladybirds followed on. I remember seeing a boat at our local reservoir that was covered in them, even the sails, it had turned from white to read. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35603972 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35603972
- interfixus 7y ago
  Oh yes, the long, hot summer of '76. A glorrious time to be 16 and unexpectedly having the house to myself for several weeks. But no ladybugs to speak of, over here across the North Sea from you. Jellyfish, on the other hand. I remember sailing through shallow waters almost solid with them. Also a one-off, never seen anything like it since then.

lkrubner 7y ago

I have a question. Does anyone know why insects sometimes go so high? I went to Chicago last year and I went to the top of the Hancock building and I went to top floor, the observatory, to look out and see the surrounding area. And a dragonfly flew by outside. Why would it be up that high? What's the point? There is nothing up there. On the wide open plains of the west, there are not many reasons for insects to go so high, so why do they?

rock_hard 7y ago
Reaching for the stars?
ahje 7y ago
I remember talk about a similar ladybug swarm back when I was a kid. It was a dry summer and it was assumed they were looking for areas with more water. Other than that, insects are often quite small and their altitude varies with the weather. Low-flying swallows are seen as a sign of coming rain here in Finland, as the insects are closer to the ground when the atmospheric pressure is low.
anvandare 7y ago
Usually migration, or just because they got caught by the wind/hot air bubble. It's not like a fall from any height can harm them anyway. https://www.nature.com/news/2010/100204/full/news.2010.54.html https://www.nature.com/news/2010/100204/full/news.2010.54.ht... https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2011/06/01/128389587/look-up-the-billion-bug-highway-you-cant-see https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2011/06/01/128389587/l...
bdr 7y ago
I'm just speculating, but safety might be a reason. "Nothing up there" means there are fewer predators around. And if they do want to reach you, it will cost them a lot of work, while you got free potential energy from an updraft.
mlrtime 7y ago
Or the annoyance of that one mosquito making up to your 45th story apartment in NYC, how does it know to get up there and through my tiny cracked window!?

bookofjoe 7y ago

Could this bring down a plane?

boulos 7y ago

The article didn’t link to the actual radar from @NWSSanDiego, which seems to be this tweet: https://twitter.com/NWSSanDiego/status/1136115889516867586 https://twitter.com/NWSSanDiego/status/1136115889516867586