You might have heard about the ladybird invasion of 1976. In Part 1 of this special 2-part episode, I talk about what happened in that famous year and talk about possible scientific explanations of what might have happened, as well as the impact on the society and community. 

Podcast recommendation this week is Ungagged! Please check out our film club discussion here: http://leftungagged.org/2021/06/28/film-club-pride-2014/ 

Sources: 

Newspaper articles from the Mirror, the Birkenhead News, the Sun and other local and national newspapers, kindly uploaded by Christian Jensen Romer. 

https://www.countryfile.com/countryfile/great-drought-of-1976-what-happened-and-what-was-the-impact-on-britain/ 

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2006/may/17/water.ethicalliving 

https://www.lep.co.uk/news/do-you-remember-ladybird-plague-1976-why-britains-latest-heatwave-hasnt-caused-another-plague-45908 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35603972 

https://www.wikiwirral.co.uk/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/219043/re-ladybird-swarm-1976.html 

https://inews.co.uk/news/environment/ladybird-invasion-swarms-uk-population-explosion-season-181142 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0006320778900022

https://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/2017/research/1976-drought-butterflies-moths/#:~:text=Scientists%20at%20the%20University%20of,swarming%20in%20search%20of%20food. 

http://lostladybug.org/file_uploads/WashupEntAmericana.pdf 

https://eje.cz/pdfs/eje/1993/04/04.pdf - Ivo Hodek's study

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0082278 

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Dan-Minchin/publication/274475587_A_swarm_of_the_seven-spot_ladybird_Coccinella_septempunctata_Coleoptera_Coccinellidae_carried_on_a_cruise_ship/links/595caa7eaca272f3c08f510e/A-swarm-of-the-seven-spot-ladybird-Coccinella-septempunctata-Coleoptera-Coccinellidae-carried-on-a-cruise-ship.pdf - Hibernating 7-spots on a Moroccan cruise ship :) 

http://la.climatologie.free.fr/secheresse/drought-heat_wave1.htm - Drought in France

https://www.ouest-france.fr/bretagne/les-coccinelles-envahissent-le-littoral-larmor-plage-27639

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/002017907790035X

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Music by Debra Torrance :)