A young family was out hiking near Osoyoos this week when they came across a chilling discovery. Andrew Robertson was out with his family on Mount Kobau when they arrived at the lookout and decided to rest. He moved a rock to sit on and began to discover a swarm of hundreds of red, black and white insects, initially thought to be ladybugs. “We had all never seen anything like it. Then we proceeded to move rock by rock, and every rock had the same thing underneath. It was crazy and extremely creepy!” said Robertson. After they got home, they began to Google and began to wonder if the “ladybugs” they saw were something different. Their slightly elongated body and orange hue, along with a white area on the back of their head with a black “M” or “W” shaped marking, led to the possibility that they were Asian lady beetles. Asian lady beetles are a non-native specific type of ladybird that were brought to North America in the 1970s to control aphids and other herbivorous insects, according to Health Canada’s pest control website. “Their rapid reproduction and ability to withstand fairly harsh winters has helped them become one of the staple species in Canada,” they say. “They range in color from mustard yellow to dark reddish orange. They have a varying number of black spots on their wing covers, and some may have no spots at all.” They form in the fall, looking for places to spend the winter and can be a nuisance to homeowners, crawling into foundations and walls through any cracks. Asian lady beetles also secrete a yellowish substance that can stain surfaces and will occasionally bite or sting the skin, causing mild irritation. Whether the swarms the Robertson family stumbled upon were Asian beetles or their more benign native cousins, it was certainly a sight none of them will forget. Photo: Andrew Robertson
