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By BARBARA PITONIAK
Rappahannock News Contributing Writer
Have you noticed many more ladybugs in and around your home or workplace these days?
Your observations are accurate, says a U. Mass Extension specialist who reports that swarms of hundreds, and in some places, even thousands, of the tiny critters have lately been observed.
Craig Hollingsworth, entomologist and Integrated Pest Management specialist, uses a bit.of entomological history to explain 'tije large number of ladybugs.
According to Mr. Hollingsworth, a number of times between 1978 and 1981, the U.S. Department of Agriculture attempted to introduce the multicolored Asian lady beetle Harmonia axyridis (H.a.) to the eastern United States. It was hoped the beetles would help to control aphids and scales, including the woolly adelgid, a pest currently killing the hemlock trees in our area.
The ladybug was not observed again, however, until 1988, in Louisiana. The 10-year lag, says Mr. Hollingsworth, between release and recovery indicates that perhaps USDA’s efforts did not succeed and that the introduction of the beetles to Louisiana was an "accidental" one, possibly from an Asian ship.
Mr. Hollingsworth says that last year, sittings of H.a. were made all along the Atlantic coast, up into Maine and Canada. The beetles were also found in the Pacific Northwest, especially in Oregon and they were also detected on a planeload of Christmas trees bound for Hawaii.
"Last year, the West Virginia Department of Agriculture received
92.6%