Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History Ladybird Swarm (1976?)

Yep I just noticed heh! Some good footage on there

Great spot

6min 30sec you will see the run up to the Swarm.

Part 4 Click Me

^ I clicked on it, and it didn't work!

It was before my time, but 1976 was the hottest summer on record (as opposed to this year - the wettest, coldest, winteryest, sh*ttest summer on record).

Remember it well , the school gates were caked in them , we used to crush them i still remember the smell know , they smelt like garden peas mad hey, got a crackin tan that year . Bikinis everywhere

Cheers sludge,
adds a new dimension to the swarm, however i never in a million
years would have thought that they smelled of peas lol.

I sh-t you not , "Garden Peas" they were everywhere . love the vids of wirral , i remember oakenelden gardens getting blown up my dad took us down to watch it , ill send the link to my old fella , he was a bus driver in the late 60,70,s hell remember how Birkenhead used to look, he will love to watch those vids

my nan has just been telling me, she said that she remembers this well, she used to wirk on outside market it was either wed fri or sat..sheworked on fabric stall (abakahns) and the rolls of materical were coverd

I remember it well. I was 7, my Mum was pregnant with my brother. We were walking home from school (yes, we walked to and from school in those days) the walls were covered in them! I dread to think how many we killed walking home, but we had no choice as they were on the walls, pavements and roads.

remember it well, was over at harrison drive with a few mates .
We used to jump off the sea wall,into the river but that year it was moving!!!
with billions of ladybirds

I well remember the ladybirds, we had a sports day at school and i had to keep brushing them off my arms and legs ect, it's one of those things i had totaly forgoten about !.

i also remember them from a school sports day from devonshire park primary, we were in a field at the bottom of woodchurch lane and we were choking on them while doing a three legged race.got called off in the end.

I can remember these we lived in New Ferry then and had a tin bath that we filled with water to drown them in.We also bottled them too ! Mind you i was only 7.

This is the picture from the Birkenhead News in July 1976 of a hammer outlined under the mass of seething insects:



The report accompanying the picture says

"Freak swarms of ladybirds caused alarm in Birkenhead this week. The ladybirds, which are normally regarded as an atractive insect and the gardeners friend, took on a new menacing identity as they swarmed, locust fashion, over the town in a thick, moving mass of red"

I remember this very well i was nearly 4 at the time my fave toy at the time was a lady bug car i could sit in so it seemed pretty cool with all these ladybirds.

As i was young i thought this was normal for a summer

It was insane. I was 6 at the time and lived in Leasowe but can still remember them in my paddling pool. Thousands of them. I also recall a daddy long legs swarm in the same year. One evening our kitchen ceiling was covered in them. Biblical plagues are not what they used to be. :o)