High Sierra Topix

My neighbor and I walked our dogs up the Shepherds Pass trail (Onion Valley) on Sunday and found a swarm of probably hundreds of thousands of ladybugs. The rocks looked like they were moving! We also passed 2 bright orange piles of bear scat, presumably full of rose hips. Great trail on a 50 degree day!

Cool! My kids and I ran across one of those swarms at Valley Forge (Redbox Canyon) in the Angeles National Forest many years ago. We collected a baggie full and inoculated my garden.

There's a good California's Gold (TV show) episode about harvesting ladybugs. All the ones sold comercially are gathered by licensed hunters from higher elevations where they gather in swarms such as you witnessed late in the year.

fourputt wrote:There's a good California's Gold (TV show) episode about harvesting ladybugs. All the ones sold comercially are gathered by licensed hunters from higher elevations where they gather in swarms such as you witnessed late in the year.

Saw that episode!

Ohhhhh ... we sure could use some of them here - the aphids really do a number on a tree here, and on various garden plants...

There is a spot 1.7 miles from the end of the road at South Fork (very southern edge of Sequoia NP on the west side) that is aptly named Ladybug. The ground appears to be a solid mass of ladybugs at the right time of the year.

There is a section of Icehouse Canyon (near Mt. Baldy in So Cal) between 1 and 2 miles from the trailhead that has a huge swarm of ladybugs when they are in season.

Jimr wrote:Cool! My kids and I ran across one of those swarms at Valley Forge (Redbox Canyon) in the Angeles National Forest many years ago. We collected a baggie full and inoculated my garden.

Not sure you're allowed to collect them if in a NF or a wilderness area. Regs are completely unclear on the matter.