Photo of hordes of ladybugs via Central Park Conservancy.
Critters were making news in Central Park this week.
The Central Park Conservancy released 140,000 ladybugs (2 gallons worth) to eat the aphids that are terrorizing the local plants: “Ladybugs (technically beetles, not bugs) are natural predators of aphids, which can wreak havoc on a landscape’s plants. Ladybugs will eat honeydew, nectar, or pollen if they have to, but aphids are their preferred meal and ladybugs need to eat them to reproduce. The Conservancy expects the offspring of these ladybugs to help curb the spread of aphids: up to five generations of ladybugs can be born in a single season, and those native larvae, with their voracious appetites, will feed on nearby aphids.”
Another gross fun fact from the conservancy: many aphids are born pregnant, which allows them to reproduce really fast.
On Tuesday, a singer from Brooklyn named Takara Larson was walking in Central Park near 5th Avenue and 59th street listening to Donna Summer when she was nuzzled and then attacked by two raccoons, or as she called them: “two little dance partners blocking my path.” They may have been rabid, as Larson said they were particularly disoriented and disheveled. Much was made of the fact that she was taking pictures of one of the raccoons on Instagram (at left) when it happened pictures of and that she posted the photo below of herself at Roosevelt Hospital on twitter.
OFFICIALLY RELEASED FROM THE HOSPITAL after being attacked last night by 2 potentially rabid raccoons in central park pic.twitter.com/u5n9o3HyZO
— Prince Rama (@PrinceRama2012) July 31, 2013
By the end of the week, though, she seemed in good spirits:
4 real tho, genuinely grateful for all the love and warm wishes; I love you. I love Raccoons. I love Central Park. I love NYC. ROCK N ROLL.
— Prince Rama (@PrinceRama2012) August 2, 2013
I always wonder about these zombies who walk the streets having voluntarily detached themselves from reality wearing headphones or plugged up with ear “buds”.
Why isolate yourself from a world full of hazards, some large, some small, with which we all learn to deal using as many of our senses as we have available to us?
Perhaps this woman will now realize that there is a time and place to listen to Donna Summer, and walking in Central Park (or any other public place, for that matter) isn’t it.
Yeah, right. Rock on! (Now please step out of my way….)
OBVIOUSLY the raccoons were ticked-off at having their pics snapped for Instagram or SnapChat or whatever the heck the App-of-the-moment is.
I know I would be!
I mean, if you wanna take my picture, use a REAL camera instead of the same DumbPhone that you use to take “selfies” while strung out on your fifth Appletini!
Errr…raccoons don’t eat us rats, do they
🙁
Maybe the raccoons were freaked out by the 140,000 ladybugs they just saw?
I’ve seen a mother and young raccoon on the UWS near the CPW 90th street entrance to the park. The mother was bigger than my dog and it was very disturbing. Raccoons are vermin.