Reminds me of our longtime original sifter http://ladybug.videosift.com/

Are we sure those are actually ladybugs? We get huge numbers of beetles that look like ladybugs, but are actually some sort of related beetle from Asia. I mean, *lots* of them, but not that many of course. I was once sucking them up with a vacuum cleaner and counting as I went and I ended up with over two-hundred after only a few minutes and I was still just working the one bay window. Legend has it that if you see that many in your room, inside the walls they're swarming.

When you squish them they leave some sort of stain and a foul odor and I've heard they bite though I've never actually been bitten. The most annoying thing is that because there are so many, they're all half dead and they fly drunkenly around the room running into things. It's actually a little amusing when the ceiling fan is running, but those things would probably put your eye out at such velocities.

Still, if you're going to be infested with bugs, it could be worse. At least they aren't earwigs or cockroaches or something gross looking like that. Still, an invasive species reproducing so prodigiously has to be screwing up some ecological balance or other.

^as a veteran internet entomologist I can confidently say that yup, them's ladybugs.

>> ^silvercord:
Reminds me of our longtime original sifter http://ladybug.videosift.com/


I saw her in the video!

>> ^Crake:
^as a veteran internet entomologist I can confidently say that yup, them's ladybugs.


I second that as an insect lover.

When I was a teenager and went church retreat/camping in Forest Hills in So. CA, I saw swarms of ladybirds/ladybeetles/ladybugs. Silly me, I caught many and brought them home in L.A. area and let them go. It was fun!

And they CAN bite. Just catch one and hold onto it. They will start biting you to be let go.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlp1w-6XPHU&feature=related

>> ^quantumushroom:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlp1w-6XPHU


http://www.videosift.com/video/What-Ladybugs-really-do-in-their-spare-time (also you didn't need the extra parameters after & in YouTube URL).

Here's another news story about ladybug swarms: http://cbs5.com/video/?id=41814@kpix.dayport.com but very short!

"Cool story but"
"wow, how annoying"
"is that reporting style?"
"Maybe it's just me but"
"presenting the story with"
"one sentence snippets"
"bouncing back and forth between people"
"is very amateur."

"The reporter and editor"
"of this news story"
"need to go back to school."

I can almost bet that there's some type of aphid issue in the area which is why they're swarming. About 5 or 6 years ago, I had something similar happen on my property up in Ontario, earlier in the year I had problems with aphids on everything. About 3 weeks later everything was swarming with ladybugs.

http://www.videosift.com/video/What-Ladybugs-really-do-in-their-spare-time (also you didn't need the extra parameters after & in YouTube URL).


You insects are so damned touchy! Is it the rising cost of fire insurance?

What you are observing is a natural occurance it called a natural landing site or red gold. To learn more about Ladybugs and there migration a new blog called Hx. of the ladybug: http://historyoftheladybug.blogspot.com/

>> ^quantumushroom:
http://www.videosift.com/video/What-Ladybugs-really-do-in-their-spar
e-time (also you didn't need the extra parameters after & in YouTube URL).

You insects are so damned touchy! Is it the rising cost of fire insurance?


No because you humans are pathetic. [grin]

>> ^Mashiki:
I can almost bet that there's some type of aphid issue in the area which is why they're swarming. About 5 or 6 years ago, I had something similar happen on my property up in Ontario, earlier in the year I had problems with aphids on everything. About 3 weeks later everything was swarming with ladybugs.


Ladybugs do swarm during winter like other insects.

>> ^ant Ladybugs do swarm during winter like other insects.

Isn't that what I said?

>> ^Mashiki:
>> ^ant Ladybugs do swarm during winter like other insects.

Isn't that what I said?


Where did you say winter? I didn't see any months or season.

It may be a sign of 'The End Times(tm)'. Instead of locusts, we have lady bugs.

Some individuals, including myself, are hunkering down in their basements.... collecting can goods and water, and awaiting the Rapture(tm) to arrive. Because it will you know. It'll sneak up on us before we know it and we'll all be sprouting wings and flying off magically into the sky. At least those of us that are cool enough to have signed the contract and been deemed saved(tm).

The rest will take a dip in a lake of fire. Though.. oftentimes that term confuses people. At the far depths of the underworld, the pressures are so high that the so-called lake, is actually a reservoir of superheated highly compressed plasma. The souls of course are noncorporeal and magical in nature, so the high pressure environment is unnoticed by them. Though.. I still don't get how sitting in a hot pool of 'fire' would harm a soul. They have no nerve endings after all. Hmmm. I'll have to ponder that for a bit.

I, for one, welcome our new ladybug overlords.

0:52 - Looks like the "bugs" are displaying some kind of message on the wall... in graffiti style writing. Any Graf Artists here wish to enlighten us to what it might say?

"Are we sure those are actually ladybugs?"

From http://www.ipm.msu.edu/beetleFAQ.htm

How can I tell a multi-colored Asian lady beetle apart from the ladybugs (or lady beetles) most of us are familiar with in Michigan?
This can be a little confusing because multi-colored Asian lady beetles are highly variable. While they all have the same shape they do not all share the same coloration and pattern of black dot marks. The color of their wing covers range from pumpkin-orange to mustard-yellow and even jet-black. They may have no black spots or as many as 20 of the ebony polka dots. In Michigan, the vast majority seem to be mustard-yellow and the number of spots range from zero to eighteen. Despite the wide variation in background color and number of spots, they all share a distinguishing mark on their pronotum. Viewing the beetle from it's topside, the pronotum is that small section that separates the head area from the abdomen (where the wing covers start). There is a mark on the pronotum that looks like a "W" or "M" depending upon whether you are looking at it from the front or rear. All multi-colored Asian lady beetles have this mark that domestic ladybugs lack.

Yeah, OBVIOUSLY there's no "M" or "W" marks on their pronotums.
/sarcasm

It's funny that people aren't more disturbed by these than any other harmless insect.

Those poor fools. As if having a clip of a peculiar occurrence on your land on Youtube wasn't guarantee enough people would come pester them, they had to taunt the unwashed internet masses by making the location a secret. There can be only one outcome, and it won't be pretty.

>> ^ant:
Where did you say winter? I didn't see any months or season.

I am a firm believer in two things. Common sense, and interest in a subject. If people are interested in a subject, they use common sense to find out about it.

Bitchbugs.