Harlequin Ladybird

Most of my Victoria plums this year have been attacked by the Plum Sawfly and are inedible, but a couple of weeks ago Mrs P noticed some different critters burrowing into the plums which were around the size of a small earwig but with black and orange stripes along the back. Today one of them hatched out into a Harlequin Ladybird, which apparently is an unwanted pest imported from foreign lands...YouTube video of the hatchling here...

Here's the larva burrowing into plum..



And here's the newly hatched ladybird..

Re: Harlequin Ladybird

I have heard about the Harlequin ladybirds Barry but I haven't seen one yet. I don't like the look of them.

What a shame about the plumbs, a lot of them seemed to have been attacked by grubs this year.

Re: Harlequin Ladybird

I get a few grubby ones every year but there does seem more than usual this year (and I too spray them at blossom fall).

Re: Harlequin Ladybird

My apples have grubs this year. We are thinking of spraying too.
Not seen any ladybirds, let alone harlequin, this year!

Re: Harlequin Ladybird

I've seen many ladybirds but no harlequin.
This was in many plums on a clients plum tree, a plum moth caterpillar. We will set pheromone traps next spring to get rid of them

Re: Harlequin Ladybird

Pheremone traps sound ideal Ron, have you used them before for plum fly and was it effective?

Re: Harlequin Ladybird

We used them last year in another garden but there were hardly any plums last year. What were produced were mostly ok. We put a refill in this year and got a bumper crop with little spoilage.
Beauty of the traps is that it doesn't kill any good guys.

Re: Harlequin Ladybird

They look like lady bugs ..are they the same ???..