Re: Ladybug Bites
- Subject: Re: Ladybug Bites
- From: G*@aol.com
- Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2002 13:48:52 -0500 (CDT)
Ladybugs (Ladybirds in Britain) are frequently the cause of supposed 'bites'
but in reality they are searching for moisture. Particularly in hot weather
the beetles need to take in quite a lot of extra liquid and human skin with
sweat droplets provides a tempting source. As Ted Held suggested in his email
the bite is accidental caused by the scraping of the mouthparts as they
attempt to suck up liquid. I worked for 10 years at the Natural History
Museum as a specialist in beetles and this problem came up at regular
intervals.
Geoffrey Kibby
London
