I was diving a little in the history and is even more interesting, in unsuspected ways.
To start, I'm not 100% sure, but the fuzzy ladybugs in the video seem compatible with some of the multiple faces of the Asian ladybug Harmonia. This is bad news.
Ladybugs eat other ladybugs eggs as a normal behavior to assure food for their own larvae. For some reason, when native species ate Harmonia eggs they died. Many ladybugs are poisonous and Harmonia is one of them, so researchers searched in vain for poison in the eggs. Finally the culprit was disclosed: Eggs have a bodyguard symbiont that kills the insects that eat them.
So this children are not just releasing ladybugs. They are most probably spreading also a lethal parasite of the native species of ladybugs that protect our crops.
Another dire warning of why environmental management and ecology must be left to professionals.
To start, I'm not 100% sure, but the fuzzy ladybugs in the video seem compatible with some of the multiple faces of the Asian ladybug Harmonia. This is bad news.
Ladybugs eat other ladybugs eggs as a normal behavior to assure food for their own larvae. For some reason, when native species ate Harmonia eggs they died. Many ladybugs are poisonous and Harmonia is one of them, so researchers searched in vain for poison in the eggs. Finally the culprit was disclosed: Eggs have a bodyguard symbiont that kills the insects that eat them.
So this children are not just releasing ladybugs. They are most probably spreading also a lethal parasite of the native species of ladybugs that protect our crops.
Another dire warning of why environmental management and ecology must be left to professionals.