Insect friend or foe?

elsien

Found these crawling all over my achillea - should I be worried or are they garden friendly?

valentina

:)Think it's a ladybird larva - so friendly

elsien

Just done a quick google of ladybird larva as it was so big (much bigger than the average ladybird), and it looks very much like a harlequin ladybird larva.
Which is not such a good thing. Any suggestions as to what I should do? Jsut wondering whether to squish them if I can confirm that's what they are.

splodger_seedswapper

watch out for those - i had a really nasty bite/sting from one of them week before last - and it took over a week for the swelling to go down

fwor

Personally I wouldn't squish them. They may be invasive, but I doubt that a few people killing them here and there is going to make a significant difference to their speed of spreading.

However, their characteristics as a bigger version of our normal ladybird means they will be eating plenty of things that you don't want around.

ladylouise62

There's no point in squishing them - they are taking over from the native ones whether we like it or not - and they will at least eat aphids.