Relocation

So! We're out on the upstairs porch, where we have not hung out in months. It's a good vantage point for me, so that Larry can show me the yard work he did, which in part trimmed back a lot of limbs and vegetation to get more sun onto my new raised bed.

A ladybug has gotten in and is crawling up the porch screen.

Last summer we bought 4000 ladybugs, and if i can find a picture I'll add it - they seemed to vanish before I could blog about it, but they didn't really. Bit by bit over the summer and fall, it became clear that a lot were around, and as it warms, they or their progeny are reappearing.

This must be one of them, post-hibernation. She'll never find her way back out of the porch. I brush her into my hand and toss her outside.

Wait. There's another one...

And another and another and....

&#*%^$!

A female must have come in last fall, wintered in the molding someplace and hatched out a big, big family. And they're doomed if they stay there. A few might find their way through the cracks, but not many.

Those specks are ladybugs -- if you click it for a larger view, they're more visible.

We really had not planned to do a ladybug relocation, but Larry dutifully got the ladder and I went for the not-Tupperware. He brushed bugs into the plastic container and I shook them outside, while he repositioned the ladder.


Cool - got five this time!

Larry urges one to let the movers relocate her.

Hey, thanks for the delivery service!

(He didn't eat any, at least not while we were out there -- when he popped out from under the eaves, I started shaking the ladybugs out on the other side of the stairs.)

Clever little bugs - they kept hiding in the molding from these Big Predators who were out to capture them, and we maybe caught half of them. The rest -- a few more will find their way out through the crack around the door. Or maybe we'll do another sweep. We got maybe a couple of dozen this time around.