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Originally Posted by Jason Green  Hi Gareth, and welcome to WAB 
Not a thick question! Well, not entirely. They are putting pressure on the native species by competing for food and occasionally trying to eat them - but there are signs they have already peaked. Certainly on this forum there have been posts saying there has been less than in previous years, and my own observations corroborate that too.
Since they arrived here in 2004/5, there have been big drops - up to 90%, but not sure how true - in the numbers of 7 spots in local areas with the newly-arrived Harlequin, but no extinctions of individual colonies of species anywhere at all to the best of my knowledge.
I've noticed good numbers of 7-S's this year
Take care, Jason  |
This year there seem to have been very large numbers of 7-spot Ladybirds. I'm not convinced the Harlequins have had a significant effect on them. Numbers did drop for a while, but this could be due to otherr factors such as weather, lack of food (possibly weather related again), parasites, etc.
Certainly seen more Harlequins during the recent fine weather!