The Ladybird Survey is real science that anyone can take part in. How many have you seen?
Look out for ladybirds
Ladybirds are important to local ecosystems and provide natural pest control to gardeners. But they face threats too.
Do One Thing for nature - spend some time looking for ladybirds and join the UK Ladybird Survey run by the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH).
To take part you need to:
- Keep an eye out for ladybirds or go on a hunt
- Record observations
- Identify the ladybirds
- Report your results
View some of the results so far on the BBC Nature UK blog.
Would you like to watch ladybirds hatch? Join the separate UK Ladybird Parasite Survey.
UK Ladybird Survey
This survey asks you to look for live ladybirds in all sorts of places: not just outside in gardens, parks or woodland but indoors too.
Gang together and search an area intensively or just make notes when you happen to see one.
Record observations
For each ladybird you see, please note down:
- The date
- Location - the address/postcode of the site, or a sketch map
- Habitat - eg indoors, garden, park, woodland
Please take a close-up picture as well. For best results, switch off the flash, get close, zoom in and hold the camera steady.
If you see ladybirds together, count how many of each type there are.
Identify the ladybirds
To work out what type a ladybird is, you can download and print sheets to take with you or use the interactive step-by-step Ladybird Spotter application.
Left to right: cream spot, 10-spot, 7-spot, heather, 22-spot, harlequin, 2-spot ladybirds. Scale approximate. Click image to launch interactive Spotter.Report your results
Once you have seen a ladybird, or maybe carried out a group survey around an area, it's time to send your data to the UK Ladybird Survey scientists.
Check you have:
- All the information you need noted down
- A digital photograph showing each type of ladybird you found
Ready? Launch the Ladybird Survey recording form on the CEH ladybird-survey.org website.
Example step from Survey recording form. Click image to start reporting your results.Download and print
Ladybird identification and recording sheet
Getting good photos of small creatures
You may wish to download Adobe Reader to view these PDF files.
About the ladybird surveys
The UK Ladybird Survey aims to study ladybirds by building up a long-term view of where and how they live.
CEH began monitoring ladybirds in the 1960s and has been inviting the public to take part online since 2005.
The Survey lets you see how scientists carry out biological recording. That means carefully noting: what you find, its location and surroundings, the date.
The Ladybird Survey asks you to upload digital photographs. That's so the scientists can check what you report – some ladybirds are hard to identify.
Knowing who made an observation is also useful, but (so anyone can take part) Breathing Places lets you send a report without saying who you are. Note: if you're a school teacher or a group leader you will be asked for an email address, to help CEH use the data fully.
Go further
If you enjoy biological recording, there is a range of wildlife surveys you may like to contribute to.
Alternatively, get clued up about ladybirds or study ladybird pupae for the Ladybird Parasite Survey.
