St. FX researchers are investigating how Nova Scotia's warming winters threaten lady beetle populations, stripping our farms and gardens of their best natural pest defence.

Nova Scotia

A study led by master's student Yasin Ganab in Nova Scotia is investigating how warmer winters, linked to climate change, may impact local ladybug species and, by extension, plant ecosystems. The research focuses on two ladybug species, including the Asian lady beetle, and examines how changes in winter duration and temperature could disrupt their life cycles and effectiveness as natural pest controllers.

Recent data shows Nova Scotia has lost about seven winter days between 2014 and 2023, which can cause ladybugs to emerge out of sync with their prey, such as aphids. Experiments indicate that warmer winter conditions increase ladybug metabolism during periods when they should be dormant, potentially reducing their populations and threatening the natural balance that protects crops from pests.

Will warmer winters mean fewer ladybugs and more pests?

How will Nova Scotia's ecosystems be changed by warming winters? Master's student Yasin Ganab is examining lady beetles to find out. Ladybugs in general, if you have them on your crops, they're not there to harm your plants. They're there to get rid of the pests. Ganab is using two beetles, also known as ladybugs, for his research. One is called Adalia bipunctata, or the two-spot ladybug. And the other, Harmonia axeritis, or the Asian lady beetle. Ganab's supervisor Jennifer Perry says this is still a lady beetle, despite what people might say. Harmonia, or the Asian ladybug, is a member of the family Coccinellidae, which is the scientific name for the ladybug family. It lives the same kind of life as other ladybugs. It eats aphids and other insects like that. Lives the same kind of life as other ladybugs. It's a ladybug just like the other ones. There are several kinds of lady beetles in Nova Scotia, ranging in color and size. Perry says the Harmonia, or Asian lady beetle, was introduced here to combat aphids, the kind of insects gardeners hate to see. It also tends to have population outbreaks to an extent that other species don't have. So when there's an aphid population boom, Harmonia seems to really respond to that and get to big numbers. And that means that it quickly runs out of food. And often when that happens, there are a bunch of really hungry ladybugs around. And that's when you get Harmonia starting to bite people. And that also gives it a bad reputation. So if you're bitten by Harmonia, it's because that is a very hungry ladybug that is trying to bite anything in its environment in an effort to get food. A recent study by U.S.-based climate science organization Climate Central has shown that Nova Scotia has lost about seven winter days between 2014 and 2023. Nova Scotia and PEI were tied for first place for losing the most below freezing winter days across all of Canada due to climate change. And this can throw off the ladybug's timing. Different insects start to come out at different times in the spring. And then we have this possibility that ladybugs are mismatched with their aphid prey. And they miss that window when there's peak prey abundance, and that will also affect their reproduction. Ganav set up an experiment with simulated seasons. The beetles have already gone through the fall stage and are into about four weeks of winter. At this stage, they should be at least not active. And I've been measuring their oxygen consumption with this nifty little machine where I insert like this electrode into a very small vial. And I can see that they're using very little oxygen. So then that tells me that their metabolism is pretty low right now. When I put them in the heatwave treatment, which I've actually been doing in this past week, I see that their oxygen consumption goes much higher, which is expected. That shows that their metabolism increases when temperatures increase, even when they should be in a dormant stage during winter. So far, the research and observations suggest if lady beetles are impacted negatively, then so too would Nova Scotia's plant ecosystem. And insects in general are just, they're like a cornerstone for so many ecosystems across the world. So that's why I believe it's really important to look at how they're affected by climate change. So without these aphid predators and predators of other soft-bodied sap-sucking insects, then all these plants would just be decimated by these insects. Alex Guy, CBC News, Anikinesh.

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