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john hansen
climber
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Feb 16, 2010 - 01:52am PT
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I remember once out at the second big pine out in El Cap meadows one time when there were thousands of them.
Another time I spent a few hours, with enough of em to cover a twenty ft by twenty ft area.
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Willoughby
Social climber
Truckee, CA
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Feb 16, 2010 - 02:13am PT
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Can't speak to Werner's virus, but every time I've come across a swarm like that, they start biting me like crazy. Apparently I'm delicious.
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crossman04
Trad climber
san diego, ca
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Feb 16, 2010 - 03:34am PT
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i remember camping in Big Sur as a kid and seeing something like that one year. The ladybugs were swarming all over the place for a day or two and there were plenty of rocks that looked just like that.
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hooblie
climber
from where the anecdotes roam
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Feb 16, 2010 - 05:03am PT
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there is a market for 'em, the forest service grants permits for their commercial harvest. i know this because i watch huell howser.
got a notion to drown yourself? ... he has his own drinking game. huell howser = huckelberry hound?
http://www.losanjealous.com/2006/09/07/huell-howser-the-drinking-game/
i scooped a gob of them as a kid in the santa cruz mtns. decades later, in the back of my dad's sedan, with the wintertime quartzite,(az) swarm of snowbirds fading in the rearview mirror, i was pressed to explain my queezynessat being immersed in a sea of rv's. i couldn't help but invoke my memory of low level panic trying to escape from the clutches of way too many units of otherwise benign critters
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Captain...or Skully
Social climber
شقوق واس
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Feb 16, 2010 - 07:52am PT
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Bugs!!!!
little chompin' bugs.
Run away!
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MisterE
Social climber
Across Town From Easy Street
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Feb 16, 2010 - 08:33am PT
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Skip's skeerd of ladybugs after her attack by a vicious swarm.
Maybe she will tell her story here.
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Crimpergirl
Sport climber
Boulder, Colorado!
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Feb 16, 2010 - 10:23am PT
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I was told the biters are not really lady bugs, but that they look like them. Used to see a large number of them at Seneca. I'd be climbing along and thing "look out little lady bug, don't want to squish you". I'd be kind and then one would bite me. Hard. Then another. Then it was a squash-fest. Their bites are really very vicious. Little f*#kers.
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justthemaid
climber
Jim Henson's Basement
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Feb 16, 2010 - 10:26am PT
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Yup- I got all bit up by one of those swarms.
They seemed so cute at first.... until the big red chew began. Evidently they wake up cranky.
*(shudder)* I still wake up in a cold sweat some nights..
Actually- I've heard it's the introduced Asian ones that are the biters. Not sure if that's true. I've seen pictures and they look a bit different than our Ca. ladybeetles and the little f*#kers that got me sure looked like natives.
Edit to add: Simul-posted with Crimpie and we both called them little f*#kers LOL.
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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Feb 16, 2010 - 11:08am PT
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A several times I've seen 'em so thick on Baldy, (San Antonio) at about 9000-9500 ft, so thick the snow looked like a squirming pink mass.
Usually happens in late March or April on a good snow year like this one.
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justthemaid
climber
Jim Henson's Basement
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Feb 16, 2010 - 02:30pm PT
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HEY...YOU TALKIN' 'BOUT ME???
I'LL F- YOU UP!
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Captain...or Skully
Social climber
شقوق واس
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Feb 16, 2010 - 02:36pm PT
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BWHA-HA-HA-Ha-Ha-Ha!!!!!
Now THAT'S funny! Good one, JTM!!
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Ricky D
Trad climber
Sierra Westside
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Feb 16, 2010 - 02:43pm PT
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Heck yeah the little fokers will bite - especially if you're all hot and sweaty.
The first couple are cute - but when the main swarm wafts over and there are now hundreds munching on you it gets nasty.
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L
climber
A field of poppies...lovely, lovely poppies...
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Feb 16, 2010 - 03:02pm PT
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Those are some amazing photos, you guys! Dang--what a Lady Bug Convention!
And JTM--that caption cracked me up.
I've been nipped by a few...but considering I've handled thousands over my lifetime, I figure it's a ratio I can live with. They're good little beetles at heart ;-), eat all those icky aphids and bring a lot of color to the scenery...not to mention giving car-makers amazing designs for new cars...
I don't know what it is about a Lady Bug...I just look at one and start to smile. ;-)
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aspendougy
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Feb 16, 2010 - 04:25pm PT
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Some kinds of ladybugs eat aphids, they are welcome in any garden where you are trying to grow greens.
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justthemaid
climber
Jim Henson's Basement
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Feb 16, 2010 - 07:33pm PT
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The ladybug poisoning evidently has affected his mind. ^^^
I would never dream of killing them... partially because of the aphid-thing, but mostly out of fear of retaliation from the red hoard.
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kev
climber
A pile of dirt.
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Feb 16, 2010 - 07:53pm PT
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Munge,
When did you shoot that? Not this time of year, no?
Usually this happens in the early fall for 1-2 weeks.
kev
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Dr.Sprock
Boulder climber
Sprocketville
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Feb 16, 2010 - 08:42pm PT
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senior prank, Homestead High School.
1972
some joker bought 10,000 ladybugs and turned them loose in the school library,
pretty good one, no study hall for 2 weeks,
then we drove the school tractor into the 14 foot deep diving pool,
pretty good one, no swimming for 2 weeks,
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salad
climber
Escondido
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Feb 16, 2010 - 08:47pm PT
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munge thats cool! tessa would be in hog heaven!
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 16, 2010 - 09:08pm PT
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Kev,
Shot it on Sunday morning. There was a brown crane (bird) in the river on a rock and I pulled over to get a shot of it, but then fortuitously ran into these little buggers.
werd Sal, did you show her the pics? I've got a video that's a little jittery I can post up. Pretty neat to see them all squirming about.
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xtrmecat
Big Wall climber
Kalispell, Montanagonia
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Feb 16, 2010 - 09:26pm PT
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Funny how you found them down low. I am like Pip, and have seen them on many mountain tops, but never anywhere but summits. And I also have seen the bears rooting around for them up high in autumn. Griz eat large quantities of insects that congregate. Big critter, tiny food, but high in calories.
I dug around in my photos but couldn't come up with some insect bear photos I have. Must be on the old hard drive, or gasp, real 35mm film. Any how, when they do cutworm digs, they uproot large portions of high mountain meadows. Looks like a vandal or three stole some sod for their front yard. And when the buggy ladies come out, they will turn the summit rocks all overand all the lichen will no longer be on top. The summit rocks then take on a different color as a result, and it took me a while to figure that one out.
Bob
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