RUSSIA: Over-sized ladybird insects infest and terrorise dozens of villages near Chinese border in Russia's Far East.

Dozens of Russian villages near the Chinese border are infested and terrorised by an invasion of over-sized ladybird insects. Officials have no explanation for the bizarre phenomenon, and dismiss climatic factors because the winter has been cold as usual. Dozens of Russian villages near the Chinese border are being infested and terrorised by an invasion of over-sized ladybird insects. Officials have no explanation for the bizarre phenomenon, and dismiss climatic factors because the winter has been cold as usual with temperatures outside around minus 20 Celsius. Commonly referred to as ladybirds in the U.K., and lady bugs in North America, these creatures are beetles. Ladybirds are the most widely used and best known form of biological pest control and they consume harmful insects that destroy plants. Ladybirds usually hibernate or die in winter, but for residents of Kutuzovka they have created a nightmare right out of a horror film. In recent weeks, dozens of houses have been infested. Residents say that they are literally everywhere, and have no fear of humans, and they will even easily crawl into a sleeping person's ear or nose. "I've been living here since 1968 and I've never seen such an incredible sight,'' said Alexandra Ryabukhina, a local resident, "Sometimes you can look up and the sky is black. Totally black!" "In the evening, I start sweeping the floor and I can easily fill up a ten-litre bucket," said Alexandra Ryabukhina. "Totally full. There are little ones, big ones, black ones, red ones, green ones.'' The plague of ladybirds infests an area covering several dozen villages home to almost 50,000 people. Residents have no idea how to combat the critters, and for now they can only sweep them from the floor. "They eat some things," said Anatoly Polyakov. "With every year there are more and more of them." Some residents have made home-made traps, placing jars of water around the house. Still, the results are not comforting. The ladybirds keep appearing. Russian Academy of Science's Institute of Environmental Problems in Khabarovsk has taken up the issue. While it can offer an explanation for the ladybirds' activity in winter --- the temperatures in houses are warm --- it has no idea where they came from in such large numbers. "They would sleep quietly if they hibernated in natural climatic conditions where the temperature was below zero," said Dmitri Kurenshchikov, a scientist at the Russian Academy of Science's Institute of Environmental Problems in Khabarovsk. "But because the temperature is above zero, even about 20 or 25 degrees, then it's natural for them to become active." While scientists and the local government offer no help, residents are left to fend for themselves.

ITN Source | January 17, 2007

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