Lots of ladybugs!

[Buttoni]

While down at our BOL planting out fruit trees, I saw tons of ladybugs all up and down the chani-link fencing. I've never seen them there before. Don't think my prepper garden there will be plagued with aphids. Still no sight of any praying mantis yet On the up side, we see lots of butterflies, bees, spiders and wasps around the yard. So we won't be lacking for pollinators or bug eaters. Anthing to avoid using chemicals on the garden is fine by me.

 

[DrHenley]

I don't think those are ladybugs, I think they are their evil twins. Ladybugs don't usually congregate like that.
Look closely and see if some of them are more orange than red, or brown even. You may have an infestation of Asian Lady Beetles. Yeah, they eat aphids (which is why they were imported by the USDA in the late 70's) but they are not very lady-like and are a nasty invasive species. They bite, they like to infest houses, they leave dark brown stains on the walls, stink up the place (they emit a stinkbug like fluid), etc.

 

[Buttoni]

I don't think that's what I was looking at. I'm familiar with the Asian Lady Beetles. My sister-in-law who used to live in N.C. had those seasonally get into her house in large swarms. These I saw yesterday were definitely bright red, very round and I don't recall ANY white on their heads at all. There were maybe 6 of them I saw on the 50-60' fence, so not really a swarm. Heads were black as I recall from my childhood. Pretty sure they were lady bugs, but I'll have to check that fence line when we go back down later in the week to be certain. This is a nice video pointing out the differences: Yes, There Are Bad Ladybugs and Here's How to Get Rid of the Pests

 

[DrHenley]

Yeah, 6 is not a swarm. I thought you were seeing more than that.