CLOSED: Ladybugs acting crazy

This morning I was out workign aroudn some confederate rose seedling t hat about 5 feet tall and had checke d the leave s and they were all clear from my daily scouting. Tonight I come home and went to watering.. Was hot and tired so I sat down on a bench to water and good thing I did cuz while I was sittign there I happened to look up at the underside of the leave s and couldn't belive my eyes.

I had oodle s of lady bugs all hidiong all over the place. Soem of them were busy in the proces s of laying eggs too. I never seen so many lady bugs gather in one plac e before especially when they were never ther e before and the egg layign going on. Unreal. : ) Isn't it a little bit late in te season for them to be laying eggs and was wonderign if ther e any way to try and gatehr the eggs and maybe hatch them out in a sfae plac e so they dont get eaten by somethign else?

You might check those leaves very carefully. Ladybugs lay eggs where there is food for the babies that hatch from those eggs - like aphids.... Don't do anything though, the LB larvae and adults will take care of them for you. No, you wouldn't be able to hatch and feed them. Just let nature take its course.

Thanks CeeJay.... I will go out and take a double look at thos e leaves and the plants aroudn them. Maybe there somethign hiding that I not seeing that have them there. Even with my glasses, sometimes I am as blind as a bat. LOL

So weird to se e them. I have had a few ladybugs on and off, but never such a population like this and all in one place and so high in the air. Thought they always stayed kind a low to the ground not 4 and 5 feet in the air.

They go where the food is..... Do you have any black stuff (called sooty mold) on any of the leaves? That is proof positive that a sucking insect has infested the plant. When they are in large numbers, sooty mold will form - a mold that grows on their excretion of excess plant sap.

Nope no sotty mold and have looke d all ove r the leave s and soem of the plants next to them too and not an aphid to be found. Not a bug anywhere's. Leave s are clean. need abit of fertilizing , since I didnt do it durign drought season, didn't want to fry the plants especially with a water shortage. I had a few aphid s early in the season, get them every year, but haven't had any since.

We did have some wind s and after months of a severve drought and temps of 113F for month son end we finally got a few days of somerain, not much , but better than nothign and temps now in the 90's.

Is it possible that they are migrating in from somewhere? Do Lady bugs go south for the winter?

My curiosity got me on do Ladybugs go south? So I had to look, thought I would share what I found out. :)Anita

"Most insects stay here year round. They employ a variety of tactics for survival. One is simply to move in with humans. Insects such as ladybird beetles (ladybugs), cluster flies, elm leaf beetles and boxelder bugs overwinter as adults in wall voids, attics and other out-of-the-way places in homes and other structures."

Got the info from this place-http://lancaster.unl.edu/hort/Articles/2002/Winterbugs.shtml

Those would be the Harmonia lady beetles - AKA Asian multicolored lady beetles. They are an import from Japan where they overwinter in chalk caves. Lacking chalk caves here, they overwinter in our houses....
Not all lady beetles do that.

Starlight, check out this thread on newly hatched Lady Bug larve:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/772352/

This way you'll know what they are when they hatch!