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The Asian ladybug, an invasive species, is here to stay. It was detected for the first time in Catalonia 10 years ago, becoming a pest, and is still present in the territory, as demonstrated by these photographs for La Vanguardia's Readers' Photos captured in the medieval garden of the Pedralbes monastery in Barcelona.
On the artichoke leaves there were showy, large Harmonia axyridis ladybugs of an intense yellow color. Let's hope they don't harm the native ladybugs.
And the thing is that the also known as "harlequin chinita" became a pest in several places around the world, not only in Europe, after being introduced to control, precisely, other agricultural pests, such as aphids.
But, the remedy was worse than the disease in this case, given the great voracity and large size of Harmonia axyridis, which began to be a problem for native ladybugs, for crops and even for humans.
The Asian ladybug is distinguishable from the rest because it is larger (7-8 mm long and 4-7 mm wide), but also because of its M-shaped black spot.
Despite its attractiveness and harmless appearance, it not only eats aphids, leaving the other pest controller species without this food, but it also devours more of the other ladybugs, reducing the presence of other species noticeably.
Their hibernation habits can also be problematic, especially in vineyards, where they generate a complex situation, because if the wine is contaminated by the larva, the egg or the adult, when the grapes are harvested, the conditions of the wine can change.
In some places it has been detected that they hibernate inside houses, forming colonies of these ladybugs and causing various inconveniences to people. She's pretty, problematic and here to stay.
