D3136: Community scientists uncover the status of native lady beetles in Ohio gardens

The Buckeye Lady Beetle Blitz community science program was created to track the status of native and alien lady beetle species across the state of Ohio. Many of Ohio’s native lady beetles are in decline, possibly due to the introduction of alien lady beetles, habitat loss, and stressors such as pesticides and pollutants. By working with community scientists, our goal was to quantify the relative abundance of lady beetle species that inhabit gardens. We examined how the abundance and species richness of floral resources, residential pesticide use, and surrounding landscape influence the lady beetle community. We predicted that pesticide-free gardens with a high floral availability would support the highest abundance and richness of ladybeetles. Further, we expected a higher abundance of native lady beetles supported in home garden landscapes near high concentrations of natural habitat. To recruit community scientists, we held 12 one hour training workshops across Ohio where volunteers received a toolkit with trapping materials. Volunteers used yellow sticky card traps to collect beetles from their garden during one week in June and August. Following collection, they completed a data sheet documenting the abundance and species richness of blooms in their yard and their pesticide use practices, then mailed their cards and data sheets to the lab with pre-paid mailers. All beetles found on the sticky cards were identified in the lab. We plan to use generalized linear models to determine how local and landscape variables shaped the lady beetle community, and will be adding our results this fall.